Controlled Overburn

Oh, right. The invasion. The plan to invade Konoha. Konoha getting invaded.

How could I forget?

The proctor beside me takes a defensive position, obviously having decided to protect me and the stirring Neji, as above us in the audience dozens of balaclava-wearing ninja in blacks and grays suddenly appear from the shadows and begin clashing with those among Konoha's forces still awake.

Four of the hostiles separate from another larger group above us, and leap down with kunai and shuriken drawn.

Funny thing about falling out of the flow state, is that while getting back into the exact same fight or problem is really, really hard because of all the mistakes and noise regarding the exact specifics of that task piling up in your head, the amped-up state makes it actually pretty easy to get into another flow state right away.

Like, something in the brain is already primed to go, so long as it's a clean slate.

So the kunai in my hand is whipped out so fast that the three shuriken thrown my way are parried in less than a split-second, ricocheting off and colliding with another six shuriken aimed at Neji, rendering them harmless by way of the crimson madness veiling my perception.

Like switching songs in Beat Saber after uselessly ramming my head against one song for too long, or switching opponents after half an hour of pointless sparring...

The fight with Neji had been too intense and inconclusive to my liking—so a little bit of indiscriminate murder is exactly what I need to blow away all my complicated thoughts about winning fairly and losing against my own weaknesses...

"Uchiha—" the proctor tries to say something, but he's too late.

I open with my stolen Flicker Sling technique on my already drawn kunai, sending it flying so fast that it explodes a tall Oto-nin's head off his shoulders like a ripe watermelon, creating just enough of an opening in the other three as their shock allows me to dropkick a second straight on with a Body Flicker, sending him flying a dozen meters backward.

The third, wide-eyed and slack-jacked meets my gaze as my feet touch the ground next to him.

Big mistake.

Red, red, red. Spinning black sinks into his consciousness and he collapses like a puppet whose strings have been cut.

Leisurely, I turn to the last Oto nin who decided to jump down into the arena.

He's staring at me with shock and fear bordering on terror, but at least he has the presence of mind to avoid looking directly into my Sharingan, keeping his eyes firmly locked onto my left shoulder.

Until the needle spat out by the proctor demands his attention, forcing him to turn and defend against the projectile.

I burst forward, another kunai in hand as I engage him from the side, my crimson vision allowing me to pressure him despite my lesser reach and previous state of exhaustion. The smart thing would have been to back off and catch my breath before engaging, but right now I don't want to slow down. Rather I want to pick up the pace and push through - the feeling of having to pick up slack for having screwed up so much with Neji practically whipping me forward.

The Oto nin makes the mistake of landing on his heel as he backs away, anchoring his weight as he tries to counter-thrust at my face, as our kunai lock for a second. But calling up my newfound skills in Gentle Fist, I let go of the blade and scoop his arm aside, turning his entire torso around and giving me a perfect angle at his ribs.

So I plant a full-power closed fist liver-blow at an ascending angle just below the floating ribs, digging into his torso with the full force I can generate with my Strong Fist-style body rotation courtesy of Lee. A wet cough, almost a wheeze, is all that precedes his dropping like a sack of potatoes onto his knees.

I reel back in the chakra string to the kunai I dropped just now and slam the point behind his ear with a wet noise.

Scanning the surroundings and audience above for more hostiles, I flick aside the blood on the blade before re-holstering it.

The proctor is eyeing me warily, while Neji seems to have finally recovered. That's good—Neji is reliable,

At least, I hope he is.

Unlike with canon, there's no real incentive for him to grow from this fight. Naruto was, at least on some level, instrumental to Neji's growth as a character. From his perspective, there's no rhyme or reason for his loss here, beyond my dubious claims of the Sharingan's superiority and one punch being all I need.

Ah, but I'm pretty sure he's basically irrelevant compared to the shitshow that's Gaara, right now...

I look up into the competitor's area but see nothing from this angle. Did they run off already?

Okay... Priorities: avoid Orochimaru, take out the Sound Four to keep the barrier from being put up, sic Naruto on Gaara and see if anything works out, kill as many hostile nin as I can, keep the village safe...

"Priorities, priorities..."

Luckily, with Shadow Clones, I don't need to choose.

And with the results of the past month's sealwork—with some vital assistance from Naruto—I don't need to waste any of my current chakra either. Troubled by how limited my chakra was, until now I had focused on mastering the basics; low-cost, easy-to-use jutsu with lots of utility and room for creativity.

But recently it's become abundantly clear that that kind of stuff will only take me so far.

I need more firepower, yet the chakra to use, much less master, such jutsu will take years to achieve. Even with the Sharingan giving me a leg up, that much will not change.

So my ad hoc solution for at least the former was pretty simple.

Since sealing things away for later use had been so effective until now, then obviously I should just learn how to do just that with chakra. I first tried to figure out a way to seal chakra itself so that I could pile up the excess from downtime for when I really needed it, but that turned out to be a lot more difficult and nebulous a task than I had imagined, so instead I had settled on creating a seal for a specific high-cost, high-return jutsu so that I wouldn't have to exhaust myself with it in the middle of a fight.

Pre-paid jutsu, basically.

The result of which was the Shadow Clone Seal.

It was just that: a Shadow Clone placed into a specially designed storage seal, with an emphasis on minimizing the sensory input and degradation it would experience with time inside the seal. It wasn't like I was sealing away a human being, a much more challenging task, but rather I was making use of the malleability and incorporeality of the Shadow Clones as chakra constructs.

From their point of view, as gleaned from the memories I had been very worried about, it was like blacking out and then waking up when unsealed. I had been worried about a mental hazard involved in keeping a consciousness locked away in sensory deprivation for extended periods of time, but luckily that did not seem to be an issue. At least on the timescale I had been able to experiment with so far.

Meaning I could at the end of each day create a number of clones and seal them away for later, allowing my chakra to recover without allowing it to peak wastefully in the middle of the night. It had the added benefit of simulating near-chakra exhaustion to stimulate growth, too.

Right now, I had two and a half weeks' worth of Shadow Clones stored away.

Normally creating even a half-dozen of them would leave me woozy, but right now I was confident in matching Naruto, at least for a single horde.

Some nights I had created a dozen clones, others just a single one, creating a wide variety of them for my needs, giving this version of the jutsu a much-needed fine control for how much chakra I actually wanted to invest into a clone. Normally, my chakra would be equally distributed among each instance of me, meaning that even with a single clone I would be cutting my resources in half. A less-than-desirable condition, were I to say, only need a messenger or scout who would not need more than a fraction of my total chakra for his task.

So, handy in more ways than one.

Especially as this will deflect Orochimaru's attention away from me, at least long enough that if is looking for me, I'll have forewarning.

Pulling up my sleeve to expose the seal on my right forearm, I wince at the red welts and marks crisscrossing and dotting my arm, along with the rugburns from my own shirt from matching Neji's Gentle Fist. Among the bruises, a black three-limbed spiraling symbol of seal script—something between the Uchiha tomoe and a triskelion—marks my skin, filled in with various dots, each representing a single sealed Shadow Clone.

"Let's go with you."

I pick one with a decent amount of chakra that I had sealed away pretty early on. Because the clones were sealed away before, their skills and memories match that time rather than the present me. Meaning that unlike the regular method of deploying them, they could in fact be considerably weaker than me, if I had learned some useful skills with the Sharingan after the clone's creation and subsequent sealing.

But it's not as if I've grown that much in a week of normal training, but I'm still a little bit worried about how well the clones will take to being sealed away for longer periods of time, so better empty out the old stock first.

"Uchiha Sasuke—" the proctor approaches anew and I look up, left hand hovering over the seal release dot. I notice Neji is back on his feet again. Good: the hit only dazed him for a few minutes. Just as planned.

"Suna's jinchuuriki is going crazy—I probably can't handle him alone," I say. "Neji, you with me?"

Unlike his loss to Naruto, I could easily see this loss crippling Neji's growth, if left to fester and rot. So better to cover it up, at least for now, and keep him too occupied to dwell on it.

He blinks, staring at me with furrowed brows for a moment, before nodding silently.

The proctor is frowning at me. Right, he's a superior officer. If he gives me an annoying order, I might just have to obey. Better to distract him, too.

"The Hokage's gotten involved too, fighting the Kazekage and his guards. But at this rate, the ANBU will be overwhelmed in the audience..." I unseal the oldest dot on my arm, causing a Shadow Clone to pop into existence.

It immediately crouches down, looking left and right with Sharingan blazing, so very unlike how usual clones come into existence.

After all, it was forked from me a while ago, and has no idea what the situation is - a weakness that makes them somewhat cumbersome to use in the middle of a fight, compared to simply using the jutsu the regular way. That and the experience of being sealed away puts some cobwebs on their minds for a few seconds as they readjust to existing again.

"Go check on the Hokage. Take out any priority targets if you can while you're at it."

The clone nods and dashes away, running up the side of the arena before transforming into a raven and flying off in a black streak so fast that it almost seemed to only have been the passing bird's shadow. Not quite a Midnight Flicker yet, but still better than the usual speed limitations of clones.

Neji's eyes follow the bird for a moment, before they return back to me, boring straight through me looking as if he wants to say something.

"Fine," the proctor shakes his head. "You two, rendezvous with the other genin and protect the audience until you receive new orders. If you find Gaara, then..." he hesitates. "Prioritize distracting and occupying him. You got that?"

It looks like he's a little worried about two former contestants being put to work together, but we just nod at him in unison.

"I need to go. Don't die out there!"

With that he leaps up and into the crowd, joining the fray between a group of vested Konoha nins and the larger Oto contingent from before.

Neji turns to me.

"Jinchuuriki?"

"Gaara's got a tailed beast sealed in him. Practically endless chakra, some level of regeneration. If he gets knocked unconscious or uses a jutsu, the tailed beast inside him might come out to play with his sand."

The Hyuuga blinks, looking utterly nonplussed.

"Gentle Fist probably won't do much to him, unless you can get an instant kill on him." I continue, adopting authority. "Anyhow, we need to find them for now. You do your thing, I'll do mine, and then we move."

He nods and I raise my right hand again, selecting one of the oldest spiraling rows of sealed clones and release them all at once, causing seventeen clones to pop into existence. They appear in various states of alertness, looking more like a bunch of students waking up on a Monday after a weekend-long bender than highly trained ninja.

Still, no chakra expenditure from my current reserves, so totally worth it. These guys have very little chakra individually, having been sealed as two large batches, but that also makes them more expendable as scouts, so it all balances out.

And is that the chirping of birds I hear in the distance?

"Go," I say, not wanting to say too much while Neji's right here.

My clones already know generally what they need to do, as this—

The memory of flying high in the sky, spotting numerous far-off targets, homing in on one group, pulling wings in close, and dropping into a terminal velocity dive, un-Transforming through flashing handseals and throwing a roaring Chidori straight through Jirobou's chest as he's nailed to the roof from the impact.

The splash of hot blood, the crunch of bone, the smell of charred flesh and sizzling fat, the look of shock and agony as lightning ravages his insides, his eyeballs rolling over and popping and flash-boiling from the heat.

I inhale slowly, nodding once. The chirping sound is gone now.

Jesus fuck Kakashi - you're teaching this to kids? No fucking wonder you're a basket case, going around killing people like this.

That said...

With that, the barrier jutsu should be out of commission. Nice.

Anyhow, the major strokes haven't changed in the invasion, so my clones shouldn't have too much trouble.

I should probably be a little bit nicer to Kakashi henceforth - using the Chidori at the last instant rather than before you start running towards your target really makes up for its loudness. It dazes them this way like a flashbang, rather than alarming them before you can even reach them, though the timing is a little finicky. And its synergy with a Shadow Clone is surprisingly high, even if the chakra expenditure is pretty damn crazy and Flickering is out of the picture.

Hmm, what if I made a full-body Chidori Flicker or something?

"I found them," Neji announces, pulling me out of my thoughts.

Hmm, theory-craft later.

"Good, lead the way."

We jump up the sides of the arena, entering the contestants' area again. It looks like a storm passed through, with several of the walls caved in and the floor cracked in places. But no blood.

So the genjutsu must not have taken, then.

Had Kakashi or someone been standing by there? What about the rest of the rookies, up in the audience? No time to check out, but maybe one of my clones would think to check. So far none of them besides the first who took out Jirobou has popped, which is a promising sign.

Neji pushes onward without a second glance, presumably seeing nothing new anyway, and I follow him two paces behind.

Through the hallways and out into the stairway, where the signs of battle intensify once more. Kunai and shuriken litter the walls and floor, jutsu burns and slashes here and there along with three corpses. One Konoha nin and two Oto. We pass through, following the trail of shattered seats and cracked walls until we exit the arena out into the streets.

You can hardly tell there's an ongoing invasion with how quiet it is.

There are confused civilians ambling about, looking as if there had been a car crash and they don't know whether to try and help or to just move along. It's not as if any meaningful percentage of Konoha's population was in the arena, but it's still kind of surprising how little the fighting has yet to spread.

Makes sense, I guess. There's only so many ninja you could sneak into a city—most of their forces must still be beyond the walls, moving in now that it's started.

Unlike conventional warfare, battlelines lost cohesion and easily became meaningless when it came to ninja who focused so much on mobility and misdirection.

But then why bother sending in a unit near the stadium in the first place? Even for ninja being surrounded on all sides was hardly an advantageous position, unless there was some critical target there. I could understand the Sound Four being with Orochimaru since they were needed to box in the Hokage...

Those guys who jumped down, were they after me?

Maybe I should have taken them alive and rifled through their heads for some intel on their orders?

Would that proctor have let me? I'm not exactly sure what the social norms are for Sharingan-related shenanigans in Konoha, but I'm sure there are some, considering how integral they were to the village at one point in its history.

Well, whatever.

With the Shadow Clones on the move and out of sight, they can look into things on their own. Surely one of me would stumble upon the same question and look into it.

The sounds of fighting—like two gangs of football hooligans clashing—echoes from up ahead, around a corner, no doubt courtesy of Naruto. Judging by the ambling and confused townspeople, it seems to be a running battle.

Hmm, guess we should do something about that.

"Everyone!" Neji comes to a startled halt, turning around to look at me. "The village is under attack, evacuate in an orderly fashion to the nearest shelter! Make sure everyone is safe!"

The Hyuuga looks like he wants to say something, or as if he's weighing whether or not to shout out something as well, but finally he shakes his head and continues moving, seeing as how the civilians didn't need telling twice.

Passing around a street corner, I spot them in the distance.

The half-transformed Gaara, surrounded by half a dozen Naruto's all loudly shouting and jeering as they run to their deaths, with Sakura and a few other genins standing in a ring, facing outward with their kunai drawn. Huh, is that Hinata over a downed Chouji?

Kankuro must have managed to poison him, or something.

DEATH RUNS DOWN MY SPINE.

I almost trip over myself, turning around as I sense the presence that seemingly stepped forward out of shadows, and the moment my eyes meet those slitted yellow ones, the sheer wave of killing intent belies all notions of Orochimaru having need for stealth.

"Aah, Sasuke-kun. Finally, we meet, face to face."

The sashay of hips, that long tongue, the expression of ecstatic jubilation...

I don't know what to make of his dropping all pretensions of masculinity, not after how our last conversations went. All I can think is...

Ooooh fuck.

"You certainly have had me running around this past month, but I did always love a good puzzle - how to find a real among a multitude of Shadow Clones without alerting the real one... It was certainly a challenge. But one most certainly worth its... prize."

"Who—"

"Neji, keep fucking moving. Meet up the rest of them, while I have a talk with the nice lady over here."

I can sense the hesitation in the Hyuuga, but finally his footsteps drawing distance signal his understanding.

"My, my... You certainly are a considerate child. And so brave besides. Or perhaps foolhardy." Orochimaru chuckles, sending death down my spine once more. She really has turned killing intent into a language all of its own, hasn't she?

"Just out of curiosity: what was your answer for finding the real one among my clones?"

The Snake Sage smiles, more than happy to entertain questions it seems. "I had a number of jutsu and tools prepared, but you made it much too easy. It makes me a little sad that you had so forgotten me already. But the answer is the pretensions of following the needs and expectations of others."

I blink.

Oh, right. The clones are all moving and acting solo. I should have switched places as soon as possible and not just relied on sheer numbers to confuse him again. Or he could be lying to throw me off - I'll have to test his ability to discern between clones.

"Huh," I say, buying time.

"I had heard of the Uchiha scion's prodigious talent, but I must say, you certainly have exceeded - both my expectations and the rest of your kin, that is." Orochimaru smiles wickedly. "Ah, excepting one, of course."

I grimace.

"Of course. And I assume that's what you're here about... To help me in getting rid of that man?"

"That..." The smile curves wickedly as she crosses her arms, approaching me without any preamble. "And so much more..."

Inhaling, I nod to signal my understanding. "But not for free, right?"

"Nothing of value is free, Sasuke-kun."

I don't bother arguing such a self-evident truth or trying to point out that I was asking what she wanted in a roundabout conversational fashion, rather than being naively distrusting. But I'll let the Snake have its fun.

"I have a goal, too. Rather than a dream, for it is something I duly intend to achieve, without fail," Orochimaru says and I curse Kabuto inwardly. Did he really have to steal documents just so his boss could mirror my words for easy points? "And that is to master all the ninjutsu in this world."

I flash crimson at the snake.

"Precisely," she answers with obvious pleasure. "But, I desire more than merely the eyes..." Long, pale fingers extend toward me, grasping, pulling, entrancing. "I want all of you."

"Guessing that's also how you got that body of yours. Those breasts are a little bit too perky for someone your age."

Orochimaru laughs gaily. "I don't know about that... Tsunade-hime has quite a perky pair as well. But you are right... When I say I desire your body, I do mean it quite literally. But in exchange, I can give you the power you need to defeat your brother. Power, unlike any other, power—"

"Those weird tattoo seals, right? Doubt my brother would be bothered much by something of merely that level. Besides, I intend to face him with a cool head rather than frothing at the mouth... Need to really savor my revenge, you know?"

For the first time, the Snake Sage looks uncertain.

She no doubt has extensive sources inside the village, so she should know that no one has officially told me about the cursed seal—obviously for fear of tempting me to defect from Konoha in search of that power—nor should I have been able to learn of it elsewhere.

But I don't need to explain myself to an enemy.

Let her wonder whether one of his Sound Four have been pushed far enough to use their cursed seals, since that niggling doubt might just tip the scales if we start to fight. After all, I did already eviscerate and fry Jirobou inside-out, didn't I?

So my Shadow Clones being out and about are obviously a factor she will have to consider more broadly than merely in the context of a direct confrontation.

"Fufufu... You continue to surprise me. I desire you all the more for it, Sasuke-kun. But there is more to my cursed seal than merely the power it can grant you in battle... Have you not struggled and toiled with the weakness of your body this past month? The weakness of your youth and the hours wasted on recovering? My seal will allow you to soar past your old limits and claim the skies for yourself...

"Or do you truly believe that you stand any chance of catching up to your brother with the means made available to you in this pitiful village?"

I... hadn't considered that.

With the increased chakra capacity and power reserve, I could train that much more every day. It was a wall I had only started running into now, having moved on from mastering the basics into the realm of more potent and taxing jutsu, as I had been noting my troubles dealing with the big leagues.

Barring the Sharingan, my preferred method of training was repetition, repetition, repetition, to the point where I could begin to discern the more minute facets of what I was doing and start to sift through to the most efficient method for improvements.

And with jutsu that necessitated the ability to use them again and again, until I had them down pat...

Which meant lots and lots of chakra.

But no, still not enough to make me even consider joining this guy's side.

For starters, where does the cursed seal's power boost even come from? The implication with the second stage had been that possessing merely the first stage was more harmful than helpful. And fuck hollowing myself out for a quick power-up.

"It wouldn't be anywhere enough," I say. "Not against the Mangekyo Sharingan. The idea of matching Itachi with just that, is by its very premise, flawed." I shake my head. "Moreover, this applies to you, too, seeing as how you desire the Sharingan."

Orochimaru's eyes narrows, her attention sharpening like a scalpel against my skin.

"My brother's going blind - You think you'll manage to learn all the jutsu in the world in a mere handful of years?" I ask, arraying her desire for immortality against itself.

Though it's not like she absolutely needs the Mangekyo, but I'm guessing ol' Oro ain't the type to accept half-measures for the sake of sanity and self like I am. I mean, I get it; leaving a quest or skill-tree in games, or some courses in a syllabus, unfinished would bother me to no end even if it would be against my best interests to finish it, back before.

A beat—a moment of heavy and weightful stillness.

"Then it is merely a matter of rebuilding the Uchiha clan, is it not?"

"What?"

"Or was your attraction feigned, when we spoke inside the tower?" she asks with a coquettish look.

Oh, shit. Oh damn. I just swallowed heavily, mouth dry and over-runing at the same time. Oh fuck, I am attracted to this crazy bastard and he's willing to go that far.

It's just...

A lifetime of reading crazy and outlandish stories, often featuring just as if not more crazy and outlandish relationships has, to a certain, shall we say, not entirely inconsiderate degree, warped my views on relationships. Skewed the parameters and shifted some settings that normally you wouldn't even think about.

None of my 'real' relationships back before ever lasted more than a handful of weeks and had never left any impression more lasting than a resounding 'meh' on me before... Not just because I was a very difficult bastard to get along with, often unpleasant and contradictory just for the sake of being unpleasant and contradictory, but also because I got bored very, very easily and went out of my way to find reasons to hate people.

I lick my lips, taking a step back, finally more than just a little bit scared. For and of myself, because I really shouldn't be even considering this...

But, haven't I been noting how disappointing everyone here was?

Now that I think about it—that I imagine it—life with this crazy bastard, living on the absolute fucking edge, probably wouldn't be that bad. Sure, there would probably be a lot of atrocities, but I think I could dissuade Orochimaru from the worst of it in the name of the empirical method and proper, actual science.

That's just not my dick talking, right?

This isn't some "I can make him good," and "There's still good in her, I can feel it!"-level of horny fantasy about taming some beast, alright, but a measured and rational analysis of what I was willing to live with and what I wanted out of my life.

Am I really satisfied with living in Konoha? Under the yoke of others, surrounded by people I barely relate to, doing missions for who-knows-what reason?

What's the alternative?

Plotting out the Uchiha genome, finding the optimal match for my genes, rebuilding the clan stronger than ever before, and then mastering everything chakra has to offer and reaching beyond the realm of mere possibility into the furthest reaches imaginable... That would all be possible at Orochimaru's side. Together with Orochimaru. More than anywhere else in this world, I suspect.

With anyone else.

Because the things we could achieve together...

Sure, she would probably demand periodically new bodies if she didn't manage to get a single, perfect body to accept her soul, but if it was a test tube baby made without ever allowing it to a stable existence, skirting that moral line of what was a life, I would probably be completely okay with it given some finagling with cloning technology... Hell, I was probably even fine with use first making the next few generations of Uchiha solely for Orochimaru to possess, working out the kinks until a stable possession was reached, and...

Hold up.

"There's just one thing, Orochimaru."

The smirking snake raises a pallid brow, allowing her silky black hair to hang freely and be pushed aside by that flawless jawline. That pale skin, those piercing eyes, god, that tongue...

Was it hot out here?

I swallow.

Yeah, okay. I'm definitely attracted to this crazy bastard and it's the horny in charge right now... But. BUT...

There is a line I'll never fucking cross. Strong enough horny intent in the air to make your average teen cream their pants instantly or not.

"Are you even capable of falling in love with me?"

Orochimaru blinks, completely and utterly nonplussed. A look of disgust—an offense so utter and total that there is no other word of it—flashes hot through his eyes. And the veil is lifted, the madness recedes. The horny is gone.

Because that's answer enough.

The one thing I won't compromise on.

"No deal."

The previous facade of allure vanishes as if had never been there, replaced by scorn and that deep voice I had remembered him possessing.

"You would sell your children, betray your village, turn your back to everything... But not on love?"

"Sure, I'm more than aware of my many moral failings... But that's precisely why there are things I won't betray. I'm not going to dedicate myself to someone who won't do the same. Especially if I'd be making an enemy of the entire world in the process. That's just stupid."

If I'm going to make an enemy of not only Konoha, but also Akatsuki, then I sure as hell wasn't going to do it for someone who wouldn't do the same for me - that is, throw away everything else in the world just to be with me.

Orochimaru's eyes narrow and the killing intent, forboding a sonnet of suffering, tingling and dancing across my entire skin and against my every sense, returns tenfold.

"To think the nonsense Konoha peddles would even addle someone as promising as you."

Whatever attraction was there, died with that. I don't mind manipulations, I don't mind lies, I don't mind some mind games, but...

I shrug.

"Yeah, to be honest, all the Will of Fire stuff is pretty tiresome to hear..." My hands fall down as I match his killing intent, drawing on everything I learned from Zabuza. "But only because it's so damn obvious that I really don't need to hear it again and again."

They say every cynic's just a frustrated romantic. I guess that's true enough for me, at least.

"No matter." Orochimaru declares hoarsely. "You have raised many considerations I had not been aware of, Sasuke-kun. But fret not, I shall ensure that your precious Uchiha seed shall be spread while I am in possession of your body. But first, I believe I shall experiment a little..."

Sharingan spins, barely catching the tell as he's on top of me on the attack the next instant.

Three blows were thrown in rapid enough thud, thud, thud to make a whipcrack sound each time, strong enough to travel all the way through my bones into the earth cracking beneath my feet as I block them with my guard being blown wide from each individual blow.

I would have been knocked cold by any one of them had they struck home, had I not been giving ground and backing away from his damn punches.

A beat—three additional punches, probing, growing exponentially heavier with each contact.

Then seven as he begins pressing down on me, leaving me no room for pushing back.

Alright, screw this guy, he's like seven weight classes above me and has the reach advantage even without his stretchy limbs bullshit. Rule of thumb in striking; aim for the head, because body blows aren't it. But I'm still such a shrimp that I need to stand up on my toes to even reach his damn chin!

Maybe against a normal opponent, I could just replace the head with the crotch, but with this freak... Just no. Even setting aside the matter of a cunt punt's efficacy in a real fight, I bet this guy's got some super morbid body modifications going on down there. Like, a huge snake that pops out of his trousers, or a set of chompers attached down there...

Anyhow, not putting my hands anywhere near that.

To think that I was thinking about going out with this guy, not more than a minute earlier.

Another four punches—left, right, right-left—thud painfully against my forearms, sending lances of pain down my bones as he leverages his complete size dominance ruthlessly, leaving me with no option but defense as I'm pushed back.

But I find contact in the last one with my forearm crossing his, so Gentle Fist time!

Scoop, sway—Konoha Whirlwind!

Orochimaru checks it, raising his left leg and arm to absorb the impact, as I repay in full his previous blows, his yellow eyes shining with malice as he's forced to create distance after being the one to first close in, creating a gap between us to dissipate the shattering kick I dealt against him.

I spin around from the kick and take to skipping on my feet, warming up my calves as I shake my hands, trying to work out the pain there.

The Sharingan is again picking up so much fucking slack it's not even funny. But I don't exactly have the luxury of complaining at the moment about it. Switching from Gentle Fist to the Strong Fist is working, though the timing and change in balance are a little bit hard to handle. Should have trained that a little bit more now...

He explodes forward again, jaw unhinged and that long tongue lolling about around his neck.

Four punches snap at me, light and probing again, using his longer reach and better physique to his advantage, pelting me with jabs as he lays down the rhythm.

But it looks like I managed to pound enough respect into him that he won't try to hit me so overbearingly again, like I'm some punching bag or training log. Good. But at the same time, he's not giving me an opening big enough to kick into anymore either, leaving my short arms completely useless against his whip-like offensive.

Sharingan swirls, seeing through even the strange lolling movements of that tongue. It's like a snake, coiling to strike out, a fifth limb in play.

Now.

It snaps forward for my neck, more like a frog's than any snake's I've ever seen.

Slap, wind, coil!

I reel it in and explode forward past his arms, using the tongue like a rope as I slam a tight roundhouse kick right into his gut, digging the foot in and reaching for his kidney through his abdomen.

But the freak is completely unfazed, arms crashing down to grab me as his neck extends outward, mouth wide open. I barely manage to free myself from his tongue before it winds around me like a snake, feeling more than seeing all the limbs closing in on me.

Fuck you, then.

"Konoha Gale!"

I use both the contact of my foot against his torso and the ground beneath my feet to create a counter-rotation, whirling around as I drop down to sweep both of his legs with one of the Strong Fist's signature spinning heel kicks.

Orochimaru barely avoids having his left knee caved in as he jumps, giving me just enough time to complete the circuit, sending dust and sand flying in a circle around us. Hands plant into the ground as I turn around and donkey kick with the momentum—missing his jaw by inches—and vault back away from him, pulling six shuriken from my pouch to throw them mid-air before I land.

The Snake Sage contemptuously parries them with his bare hands, seeing through the chakra thread trick instantly, but it gives me enough time to race through the seals for the Great Fireball jutsu. I don't bother with trying to freeform the Tiger seal, instead letting the street-wide bolide roar forward, hoping that will keep the bastard occupied for a second as I bring out the tomoe-triskelion tattoo on my arm.

I place three fingers on each of the negative spaces between the limbs and twist my hand, like turning a key, unsealing all of my clones as goddamn-shit-fuck I need everything I've got for this.

"Orochimaru!"

The clones, groggy and confused, snap up with at the name and disperse to the best of their ability.

Hand below the ground, grabbing ankle.

I jump to the side, barely escaping Orochimaru's grasp by virtue of the clone dispelling itself to alarm me. Immediately three kunai from the dispersed clones target the Sannin emerging from the soil, but his tongue catches them out of the air, threading the rings with ease.

"I see, we are moving on from taijutsu already... Huhuhuh... Well then, I hope you will not disappoint me, Sasuke-kun."

The three kunai are returned with a flick of his long tongue as pallid hands flash through handseals—Shuriken Shadow Clone jutsu—I realize.

I rush forward with a smirk as the kunai vanish before Orochimaru's jutsu can take hold, my clones having partially dispelled themselves to erase the projectiles the Sage had stolen, the jutsu made moot.

His eyes widen with surprise for just a moment, but his hands are already moving to use another jutsu instead, before I can close in to make use of the fifteen shuriken launched Orochimaru's way by my other Shadow Clones.

Shit, I can't catch up!

"Wind Release—"

Tiger, ox, dog, rabbit, snake.

"Wind Release—"

I jump back, a second after him in the jutsu, as he calls something out but the name is lost to the great howling blast of wind that comes bearing down at me. But I can lip-read just fine, calling out the name before it can reach me with my own!

"Great Breakthrough!"

The two howling blasts collide in the middle of the street like a bomb going off: windows and doors are torn clean off their hinges and sent flying, loose roof tiling peel and scatter like autumn leaves, the chakra construct shuriken are torn apart by the air pressure alone, along with two of the closest clones who couldn't escape in time.

I barely hold on, my feet adhesed to the ground with chakra, desperately gritting teeth against the grinding and clashing jutsus' backlash.

Orochimaru smiles as the winds die down, debris and dust falling all around us all aclatter, his mouth stretching far too wide as he looks just about ready to climax. "Fufufufu... You will show me the famed eyes of insight of your own volition? How very kind of you, Sasuke-kun..."

Wind really isn't my element. I could have thrown at least two and a half Great Fireballs with that amount of chakra.

Oh well, at least I came prepared.

"But in that case, let us dispense with the pleasantries and move on to the main course."

Oh, fuck off already.

Orochimaru's hands flow like water, having flashed through five handseals before I even think to copy him, so I slam my Sharingan into his consciousness and impress a doubled illusion by alloying my eyes' ability with a regular genjutsu to disrupt and trip him up, while my clones re-sortie to snipe and harass the Sannin from the rooftops.

His chakra slips and snaps, dispelling all of my genjutsu the moment they come into contact, finishing his jutsu without even slowing down. He slams his palm into the ground and a tidal wave of snakes gush outward to hunt for my clones.

Fuck, I don't have a summoning contract to copy those jutsu.

He's probably got an entire repertoire of jutsu from his snake contract, too.

"Now we can properly enjoy our time together, alone."

My clones will be able to handle it, but this'll keep them from pressuring him fully. It's just a check, then.

"And I must say... compared to your brother, your genjutsu are certainly crude. A rather brutish approach."

The ground beneath my feet tilts and I catch myself, pulling and snapping with my internal chakra to dispel the sudden genjutsu before I lose my balance.

How the fuck...?!

"...You're using sound waves to propagate it?"

"Very astute," Orochimaru praises. "But I see you that you cannot replicate it by sight alone. A pity, that."

I grimace.

It's a very good thing he's still treating this as an experiment.

"Then what about this...?" he asks.

The vermillion wheels turn as he begins another set of seals—Tiger, Ox, Dog, Rabbit, Snake.

I roughly get the jutsu even before we activate it, so instead of copying it one-to-one, I invert the scream that leaves my mouth. We both stand there for five seconds, mouths agape without any audible sounds or effects occurring before we cease the jutsus as one.

Orochimaru's eyes are aglitter with praise. "Well done, well done... To completely negate my Sound Wave jutsu on the first try!"

If I had tried to copy his jutsu perfectly, the two soundwaves would have just amplified one another. His body is probably modified to handle it, while who knows what would have happened to mine from it. But by inverting it, the soundwaves zeroed each other out, resulting in complete silence instead by way of noise canceling.

Tricky fucker.

I flinch as one clone is swarmed by snakes, dying in a ball of tangled scales and sharp teeth, before shaking my focus back to the present. It was just a weak clone acting as bait for another to use a Great Fireball on as many snakes, anyhow.

DODGE!

I jump back, ducking low and barely evading the long tongue going for my left arm as I roll and kick off a wall, the memory of a second clone the only thing that allowed me to evade the sudden attack by Orochimaru. Fuck, he must have sensed my distraction and instantly acted. That level of tame-sensitivity is insane!

He flings out an arm and three snakes erupt towards me, all teeth and spitting venom.

Fuck that! Ox—Rabbit—Monkey!

"Chidori!" A hundred birds chirp and scream as I swipe and behead the serpents, sending boiling blood flying like raindrops around me as I catch myself, letting the lightning die out.

That was way too exhausting, but I don't trust kunai to deal with those things reliably. Would probably bite me even with their heads cut off.

Orochimaru drops the flaccid snakes from his sleeve without any regard for their deaths as he walks forward unhurriedly, hands flashing through seals again.

A wave of mad chakra washes past me—Shukaku having been released and let loose in the middle of Konoha, and all the shouts that go along with that event—but I have no time or attention to spare to something that trivial, as I copy the Snake Sage's jutsu again.

The jutsu rumble and rage as he pushes me, harder and harder.

First, it's another wind jutsu, then it's a torrent of fire in the shape of a dragon, then a tidal wave of earth coalescing into a dragon. Then another Great Breakthrough that catches the debris of the earth jutsu and the last sparks, igniting them all anew in an explosion that scatters supersonic rock projectiles everywhere, which we follow with another sound-based jutsu, this one a genjutsu of some kind. But that's just a ploy to hide the formation of snakes that come coiling from the ground to catch me, that I burn to death with a freeform Fireball.

Somewhere along the way, our battle ends up destroying a water tank above a building, allowing us to round our jutsu with some clashing Water Dragons for good measure.

Fuck, whip out lightning and wind dragon jutsus next, won't you!?

I match Orochimaru jutsu for jutsu, feeling my chakra draining at an alarming pace with each clash. All around us houses are being torn apart and destroyed, the three nearest streets all having become one with the continued backlash and collateral damage from our jutsu. I wince as another building collapses next to us, taking out the remnants of the two coiling water dragons with it.

God, the property damage alone...

Panting, I support myself with my hands on my knees without taking my eyes off Orochimaru.

"Kukuku... Are you certain that you do not wish to reconsider my offer, Sasuke-kun? You cannot let yourself be exhausted by mere child's play such as this, if you hope to ever meet your brother with ninjutsu."

This fucker... I've already burned through more than triple my maximum chakra and he's going to pretend like it's nothing? Like even an adult jounin wouldn't be hard-fucking-pressed to keep up with this shit? Fucking hell, I hope he's just talking trash and Itachi at my age wasn't legitimately throwing around all these jutsu.

"Do I... look like I'm down and out, yet?"

Fuck, my head is spinning. Breathe, just breathe... This is an exhaustion altogether different from what I was experiencing with Neji, yet I like it a lot less.

Chakra is the union of physical and spiritual strength, with implications beyond just the normal tired, I suppose.

He finally relented with all the damn jutsu, okay, I think this is my best shot.

The Snake Sannin is playing at his namesake – slowly constricting me, letting his poison weaken me, as he keeps looking at me straight in the eye, so certain of his victory, enjoying this for all it was worth. There was still an unbridgeable gap between us, but...

I wasn't quite done just yet.

"Hmmh." Orochimaru smiles, lazily approaching me, perhaps satisfied that I have no more strength left to resist him, the foreplay over and done with.

I exhale, our eyes meeting again.

Until now, he's had nothing to fear from my Sharingan given his effortless dismissal of my illusions, and sure his casual dispelling of my best genjutsu was a little unnerving, but it's not as if I'm out of tricks just yet. Especially since he's so helpfully lowered his guard.

An open mind is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded, I remind myself, only half in jest.

My spent chakra is refilled again in a heedy rush, the sensation sending pleasurable shivers down my spine as my energy levels go from bottom to completely topped, almost bursting over, and I stand up straight.

I had observed a month prior that unless I dramatically improved my chakra reserves, there would be no way for me to face off against someone like Orochimaru.

Well, I figured out a way to do it: to expend chakra when I didn't need it and store it for later, allowing me to refill my stamina near-instantly. And I didn't need to waste a fortune on jewels to do it either, like some people. Shadow Clones are pretty damn handy like that, demanding large portions of your chakra to use and then returning a portion of it along with its memories upon dispelling.

Much better than getting a hickey from some suspicious boomer scaley, wouldn't you say? Because I just know he can turn into a snake.

Especially as along that strength returns a number of plans, tactics, ideas, and counter-measures for his earlier stunts, all coaching me through this. If my Shadow Coaches—and yeah, fine, Coach, I'll call you that since you insisted—hadn't helpfully held a meeting to sort through and unify all their thoughts, it would have surely overwhelmed me again for a moment.

And among these many stratagems, one plot has risen above all others.

A bit unconventional and something I've never tried before - the proverbial sledgehammer to my earlier hammer-like approach of genjutsu.

But yeah, I can do that.

"Orochimaru, let's finish this."

"Kukuku, child. You do not—"

I pour nearly a third of all that refilled chakra into my eyes, the pressure building up painfully as something pops through to connect into Orochimaru's mind.

If regular genjutsu won't work, then I just have to do something permanent, something that can't be dispelled.

Sharingan sinks into his brain in a lance of pure malicious intent, shattering past his automatic guard and impressing itself into him before Orochimaru's chakra coils and lashes out, throwing out all of my hostile invading chakra from his body. Had I been aiming for a longer-lasting effect, I had certainly failed.

But all I had done was flip a switch.

"Khh... We already spoke of your crude approach, Sasuke-kun... This headache certainly is painful, but that is all you have achieved with it," Orochimaru chides me, glaring with golden slitted intent to cause me pain. "A useless last effort, nothing more."

I smirk, standing up and wiping away the blood coming from my eyes, trying to ignore how not good that should be.

"Well, I don't know about that."

Whether it's my confidence or the inexplicable surge of strength I had just a moment ago again, something causes the Snake Sage to take pause and stare at me with furrowed brows.

Having been messing around with the Sharingan for a while now, I had been trying to figure out effective ways of using them beyond just conventional genjutsu. Techniques that can't simply be dispelled or wiped away, that don't rely on tricks and deceit to work, because of how simple they can be to defeat, as demonstrated earlier.

The result of which was this—as of yet unnamed—application that I had just used.

It had no obvious effects at first, but the longer our battle went on from here, the more drastic it would become.

It was effectively a permanent, unremovable debuff on stamina.

The way stamina works is pretty complex, given how many muscles and organs were involved, but one of the biggest factors was how effectively you could deliver oxygen to your various muscles. Oxygen being vital for pretty much everything to function in your body. In this, things such as your breathing, your heart rate, blood pressure, and blood oxygenation level mattered, the last of which was particularly interesting.

Simply put, just because you had lots of oxygen in your lungs and your blood, did not mean that it could get to your muscles.

The process which allowed the oxygen-carrying blood and the carbon dioxide-laden muscles to swap their loads—called the Bohr Effect back before—was based on pressure, and it necessitated a certain amount of carbon dioxide to also be in the blood to function. That is to say, if you had too much oxygen in your blood, your muscles would become unable to swap out their useless carbon dioxide with the overly abundant oxygen in the blood.

This was how hyperventilation worked; by breathing in too much oxygen, it was actually possible to even knock yourself out for a short moment, since the brain is just a muscle, too. And in reverse, somewhat counter-intuitively, the lower your blood oxygenation level was the more effectively your muscles could absorb the oxygen that was in your blood for themselves.

And the funniest thing about all of this was that the factor which most tyrannically controlled the blood oxygenation level was actually just a completely independent sensor of sorts in the brain.

Or well, a chemosensory reflex in the carotid body in the neck that sampled the arterial blood, which is in direct contact with the brain stem. So the really rudimentary parts of the human brain - practically on the level of the 'lizard brain' that evolved when our ancestors made their first steps out of the water. And this sensor, which paid no heed to the demands of the muscles or the lungs or the heart, simply decided on its own when it was time to demand you inhale a new breath.

Back before there had been a simple test for this, called the Body Oxygen Level Test—or BOLT—which was not so much a test of how long you could hold your breath as a test to see how sensitive your brain was to carbon dioxide in your blood, that I had used often enough to test how various breathing techniques and meditation practices affected my cardiovascular capabilities.

A normal score was twenty seconds. A professional athlete could easily see double that, their body and brain conditioned to perform at a much more efficient pace, in turn allowing their hearts to beat slower and allowing them to waste less energy, simply by virtue of the brain knowing that it could tolerate that much carbon dioxide just fine.

A big part of stamina training was literally just forcing your brain into allowing you to breathe less when exerting your body, adjusting the tolerances on the machine. And unless you knew the trick I had through genjutsu to dialing down that sensitivity in the brain, the only way of recovering was the hard way. The long way. The 'start running every day until you stop panting'-way.

Hence, permanent debuff.

The name comes upon me like a flash, a smirk growing on my face, eyes shining with malicious pleasure.

"How do you like it - the sensation of my Eyes of Entropy?"

Orochimaru blinked, half in surprise and half in hunger. I could see it shining in his eyes, that hunger and greed for the Sharingan. That desire which saw nothing else, gave way to no one and nothing, ruling him so absolutely within and without.

Anything and everything related to the Sharingan had him hanging on tenterhooks.

My smirk widened ed, for once in this fight choosing to advance rather than keep my distance or defend against this monstrously strong ninja. Nothing in our respective skill levels has much changed, but with the memories of the dozens of Shadow Clones now lodged in my brain and the seed of Entropy planted, all I needed to win was to keep pushing.

I blur forward, throwing three punches before my foot even hits the ground and the sage parries them on reflex—pure, unconscious conditioning against attacks of this level—as he gave me a stare of half-curiosity and half-scorn.

"Such a name for such a fruitless jutsu, I see. What a waste."

Not giving way to useless remarks, I snapped a roundhouse kick that could have taken off his head and followed it up with a spinning hook kick with the same momentum. I had to get Orochimaru moving for any of the effects to start showing.

He moves back, light on his feet, measure almost teasing, unhurried and unharried despite my best efforts.

Fine, if taijutsu won't put enough pressure on him...

Three handseals, snap-hiss-crackle.

"Chidori!"

Slitted snake-eyes shoot wide as the Sannin jumps back, practically spitting and hissing in my face for the roaring ball of lightning in my hand. For all its faults, this jutsu was really starting to grow on me. Nothing quite says fuck you like ten thousand amps rammed through your ribcage.

I chase after him, pulling back the hand only long enough to punch it forward again and to keep him from being able to grab onto the offending limb, waving the screaming ball of chakra around like a madman.

"Keh!"

Finally having had enough of fleeing, seeing that I'm nowhere near tired enough to release the jutsu, the old snake spits out a sword from his mouth and—

Oh shit!

I barely have the presence of mind to duck before the telekinetically controlled katana reaps my head, slapping my lightning-clad hand against the flat of the blade in the nick of time to re-direct it away. The blade twirls through the air, spinning back into Orochimaru's waiting hand as angry yellow eyes practically burn me.

Letting the Chidori go, I grab a pair of kunai instead.

The added reach and wrist mobility will serve me better against a blade. Besides, I can only hold onto that jutsu for so long, even with my Shadow Clone chakra trick, before I drop with exhaustion. Grinning, I bring the blades to bear on Orochimaru, noting savagely that he's started breathing heavily and hasn't even noticed it yet.

How does it feel to have gone back to the level of a couch potato who hasn't jogged a day in their life?

It was something that had shocked me a long time ago in my youth; realizing how out of shape I was when I couldn't throw punch combinations for minutes on end like in my favorite anime, without getting completely and utterly winded. I wonder how many ninjas have ever been that out of shape, to recognize it for what it is, rather than something more nefarious?

Dashing forward heedless of the big, telekinetic sword in the air, I throw one of the kunai at him.

Eyes aglow, he grasps the sword and bats aside the projectile with the flat and thrust directly at me with one hand, using the rebound for speed. I reach out with my kunai to the center and ward before stepping back, relatively safe back outside of his range. I swing again and offend at him, trusting that the threat of a throw at this range is enough to force him to check each feint with his sword, all the while circling and moving around him to keep him on the move.

These are the kind of mind games I had trained in back before for longsword tournaments—forcing the other guy to move around as much as possible while minimizing my own need for movements—where it had been especially effective in the last matches, as the rounds piled up and each contestant's endurance was put to the test.

He begins to say something, but the words don't want to come out of his mouth as he has to move back from my two-pronged assault and breathe to maintain his calm.

But that only makes it worse - he's hyperventilating and trying to breathe more.

His brows furrow as he realizes something is off, that his exhaustion is utterly disproportionate with his exertion. I feel more than see the subtle ripple of chakra as he checks for lingering genjutsu and using that slight opening I toss the kunai at him, forcing him to duck out of the way.

Drawing shuriken I let loose a volley before jumping to the side to grab the one kunai I had thrown earlier and palming it with a forward handstand spring over it, throwing the last of my shuriken at Orochimaru in the process.

"Didn't it make you wonder... how I could keep up with your jutsu earlier? You said it yourself: there's no way for me to catch up to my brother if I have to waste time recovering..." I smirk, eyes glowing and spinning as I circle the now much warier Sannin. "Can you feel it? How your strength is becoming mine with each passing second?"

I'm lying through my teeth, but that's what makes me a ninja.

His expression goes completely flat, his eyes becoming utterly empty save for a terrible, cold, and serpentine calculation as his focus turns inward. No doubt by now the pins-and-needles sensation is settling in from the hypocapnia. Nominally one would think it hyperoxia—since he's hyperventilating and all—but since it's a matter of his muscles not getting enough oxygen, hypoxia it is.

He's running on pure anaerobic capacity right now, like a fish uselessly gasping for air, unable to regain his stamina.

"I gotta say, you taste wonderful. Rich. Like a snake wine."

This is the thing about 'true strength' and 'ultimate power' and all that jazz. No matter how high and complex you stack that house of cards, the moment even one foundational piece was shaken loose, it would all come tumbling down.

Especially since the Sharingan was an obsession of the Snake Sage. He probably knows a hundred little anecdotes and legends about the bloodline limit, and could recite its origin and spread through time probably by heart, building his own personal mythos around it. Studying it, understanding it, preparing for it.

And then Itachi must have completely humiliated him, because Itachi.

So he's already set the precedent for his own defeat against the Sharingan in his mind before confronting me. His own desires will defeat him.

Can he reverse it? Kabuto might be able to, so Orochimaru can probably do it, too.

Better to keep him too busy to figure it out, then.

I rush forward again, kunai flashing as I bat aside the sword, feeling the edges bite into each other and using that leverage for cover to jump past the blade and grab a hold of the Sannin's pale wrist with a backhand, wrenching to try and disarm him.

But Orochimaru merely hisses as the sword cuts through my kunai and I barely manage to avoid losing my hand to it as well, using my hold on the wrist to more pull myself out of harm's way than to move away the offending blade itself.

A clone pops, giving me a revelation of my imminent maiming where my Sharingan was utterly failing me, and I bend over backward almost as if trying to fall back into a bridge position to avoid the snaking blade as Orochimaru slips free from my grasp.

Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck!

Another clone pops to give me life-saving forewarning, coaching me to slap the flat of the blade with a Gentle Fist parry.

Closing in was a bad idea!

Even so, Orochimaru is slowing down and his breathing is absolutely ragged and choking, meaning if I can hang in there I can still pull this bullshit through. Meaning that this bullshit sword has to fucking go. And grabbing the wrist will do nothing, because Orochimaru has freaky body mods and is still stronger than me, even while choking to death.

Three more clones end themselves to cover for me where the predictive powers of the Sharingan are pressed and found wanting, before I figure something out; the Shadow Coaching of one clone in particular flowing into me.

So...

Sharingan whirls and reality bleeds red, time crawling to a halt as I focus on one singular task in my self-disposed stillness.

Crack.

My hand whips out, shattering the forced calm, latching onto the blade of Orochimaru's sword the instant it slows to change course, fingers curling around the blade like a vise grip.

The man blinks, stunned despite his exhaustion as he realizes that it won't budge, our points of leverage equal and his arm too weak to overpower mine now. The funny thing about blades is that they only really cut when they move. You can grab a hold of a sharp sword or knife barehanded and so long as the blade can't move against your skin, it won't cut you. Can't cut you.

Of course in practice that would require inhuman grip strength against a ninja, tired or not.

Unless you could literally adhese yourself with chakra to objects, anyhow.

I grin.

"Nice knife," I quote Armstrong for the hell of it, riding the thrill of wicked satisfaction.

But unlike the good Senator, I don't try to break the sword, but rather Strong Fist kick upwards, slamming my foot into Orochimaru's hand as I spin around and pull the sword out of his slackened grasp and jump back to make distance between us.

Standing back up and playfully flipping the sword around so that I'm holding it properly by the hilt, I stare at the Snake Sage.

The anaerobic exhaustion is really kicking his ass, seeing as how his legs are literally shaking and his mouth is wide open and frothing, as he takes long panting breaths that only continue to worsen his exhaustion. Cold sweat is pooling off of his brow and his clothes have begun to cling to his skin.

And the look in his eyes—its sweetness as my victory begins to dawn is indescribable.

Because now I have a top-of-the-line sword, just as I'd come to the conclusion that I wanted to do more swording. Funny how that works out.

"Now, why don't we wrap—Ah."

Three massive toads just appeared behind the breathlessly panting sage, confronting the raging tailed beast and I'm too surprised for just a second to do anything.

Wait, I'm in the middle of a fight here!

I look down and blink, the Sharingan bleeding back into black from the surprise that comes next.

Orochimaru just turned tail and ran away, leaving me along with his sword on the utterly destroyed street. I mean, smart move. Pull back and figure out what the fuck just happened, fix it, then stop fucking around.

"Huh."

No, wait.

I make a startled chase, even if I'm certain his lead is already too big to bridge. Old ninja are tricky ninja, otherwise they don't survive.

But like hell I'm letting him run now!

"Get the fuck back here, Orochimaru!"