Chapter 27 Orochimaru

Sasuke extends a hand to me. "What's your answer Alvarcus? Are you coming or are you staying?"

Everyone, I am sorry. I am going to Orochimaru.

Yet I won't abandon Konoha. I will break orders given to me by the Hokage herself. I'm going to have to reverse summon myself to get a summon contract, something she expressly forbid me from doing.

I'm going to spy on Orochimaru.

I'm going to pull an Itachi. Infiltrate an organization that is a threat to the Hidden Leaf and send information to Konoha about its movements and aims. Work from the inside to protect what I truly care about. Everyone is going to hate me. Everyone will be told to kill me on sight. I'll probably never be allowed back into Konoha.

I'm damning myself to protect everyone else.

"Fine." I finally say after a long silence. I open my front door and wave the Sound Four back inside. "I'll go with you. I'll go to Sound." I take a deep breath to try and calm my nerves. It doesn't work at all. "I'll go to Orochimaru."

Sakon steps forward. "Pack for light travel, then we leave. Leave everything nonessential, we can replace all that you own in Sound."

I walk to my room and grab my mission bag. I toss in some more essentials, clothes and kunai and drinking water. I'm ready to go in five minutes.

I walk back out to see the Sound Four and Sasuke raiding my kitchen for food. "Really? You could have asked first. How rude."

"It isn't like you're going to need it anymore. It would go to waste." Sasuke says without even turning away from my fridge.

I sigh, "Fine. Eat your fill. The grape juice is mine. Everything else is fair game."

We feast. It is fitting, a last meal of sorts. Sasuke and I will not be coming back. Not for a long time, or even forever. This could be my last moments in Konoha.

"Come. It is time we left." Sakon finally says. My home is now void of any kind of food.

We exit my house and head towards the main gate. No one stops us, no one sees us. There are no guards, the Sound Four must have killed them when they came in. We run as a group for only a few minutes before we stop.

The Sound Four turn to Sasuke. "We need to move your curse seal into the next stage. To do that, you have to be placed in a temporary state of death. Otherwise you really will die."

Sasuke thinks it over for a few seconds. He glances at me and I nod my head. I'll protect him. "Fine. What do I need to do?"

Sakon unseals a barrel. "Get in and then take this pill. It will force your seal to advance."

With a sigh and a role of this eyes, Sasuke does as asked.

"The pill?" He holds his hand out to Sakon. Sakon gives it over and Sasuke swallows it.

"Tastes like oranges. I hate oranges." With those inspiring words, Sasuke passes out in the barrel.

The Sound Four immediately go into action. They surround the barrel in a square and fly through some hand signs and in unison chant "Four Black Fogs Formation!" A dark purple fog extends from each of the Sound Four and flows through the air and into the barrel with Sasuke. After a minute the fog stops and the barrel seals itself.

Sakon walks up to the now sealed-in-a-barrel Sasuke and pulls out five more sealing tags.

"Just to be safe. Wouldn't want anything to disturb the process." After he places the tags on the barrel's lid he shouts, "Dark Sealing Method!"

Jirobo walks up and hoists the barrel onto his back. "Time to move. Can you keep up?" He asks me.

"Please, I can run for days. Literally. I've done it before. You'll have no issues with me and my stamina." Wow I really ramble on when I'm nervous.

"Good. You might not be useless after all." Tayuya mocks me.

I snort at her. "I'm better than you, I can tell you that."

She saunters towards me. "Big words tough guy. Want to put your money where your mouth is?" She drapes an arm over my shoulders. "I promise to be gentle, it is your first time."

"What the hell lady! I'm twelve! The innuendo is not okay!" I duck under her arm and slide away. "Stay away vile strumpet!"

"Tayuya, enough." Sakon breaks us up. "We have to get to Orochimaru. His new body awaits."

Oh shit. I completely forgot that was the reason they came to get Sasuke in the first place. Orochimaru needs a new body, the final acts of the Third Hokage damaged his current one too much to keep using. It is dying. Of course he would want Sasuke for that.

Let's see, in cannon they barely arrive after Orochimaru is forced to make the switch. That means it should be fine, I can scale the time line back an hour. They didn't stop to get me in cannon so we have that working for us. As long as we follow cannon from here on out Sasuke will get to keep his body. If not, I'll just take him. We'll figure something out.

The Sound Four and I start running north towards Sound. We don't talk further, simply keep running. A hour passes without incident.

"Stop!" Two Konoha shinobi appear before us. "What are you doing here? Five shinobi fleeing from Konoha is very suspicious. Especially at the speed you all are moving at." It is Genma, the proctor of the third part of the Chunin Exams, and one of his teammates. "Alvarcus? What are you doing with them?"

Ah crap. They saw me. "I've been kidnapped?" The Konoha nin tense at my declaration. Whoops, I just made them want to fight a lot harder.

"Brat, prove your loyalty. Defeat them with us, prove you want to go to Orochimaru." Thanks Kidomaru, way to ruin my story.

Genma's mouth drops open. His senbon that he chews on falls out. "You... you're defecting to Orochimaru?"

"Uh... you know what? Fuck it, everyone would find out eventually. Yes, I'm going to Orochimaru." There, cat is out of the bag. There is no turning back now.

Genma tenses even more. "I have to kill you now. You just signed your death warrant. I want you to know that I am sorry, you showed such promise."

He lunges at me at high speeds. I've fought faster, he's got nothing on Kakashi. The Sound Four don't move to defend me. They want me to prove I'll hurt Konoha shinobi. To prove that I have forsaken everything for Orochimaru.

"I'm sorry too." I say when he is only a meter away from me with his kunai arm extended towards my throat. He's only a half meter away when I let the Jiongu out. He had no hope of dodging, not when he's that close. It tears from my neck, reopening the scar Kisame gave me. It latches onto his arm and works up his body. In moments it is around his neck.

"Genma!" His teammate yells. Raido is his name, I think. I vaguely recall that from my memories. The Sound Four engage him. He's putting up one hell of a fight. Genma would be too if I didn't have my Jiongu wrapped around his body. I got lucky, I had surprise on my side.

I reel in the Jiongu until I'm holding his neck in my left hand. I slam him into the ground, nearly crushing his neck. I kneel down next to him and lean in towards his ear.

"Tell Tsunade I chose option four. She will know what I mean. Will you do this if I spare your life? Blink twice for yes." Genma's eyes flutter twice. "I have to make it convincing. This is going to hurt. I am sorry." Genma's eyes widen in fear. I attach three chakra strings to his chest.

"CLEAR!" I zap Genma with electricity. His body convulses and he passes out.

I withdraw the Jiongu fully and leave him on the ground. To add insult to injury, and really sell myself to the Sound Four, I lazily sit down on his chest. One of my knees is raised and I'm bracing my head with an arm balanced on the knee.

Raido puts up one hell of a fight, he forced the Sound Four to use their cursed seal all the way to level two by himself. I am actually impressed, I doubt I could do that without the Jiongu. Eventually though he is subdued. He might have been able to hold his own while they were only using level one, but the power boost from level two is too great. They're toying with him.

Once they're finally done with him all that's left is a body that's beaten and broken. I can only hope there is a medic on his team, otherwise he will die.

"You finally done?" I call out to the transformed Sound Four. They all have amusement on their faces when they see my chair.

"Oh?" Tayuya calls out with just a hint of lewdness in her tone. This chick is weird. "You're not scared? You're surrounded by monsters."

"Sweetie," I call back to her, "I'm the only monster here."

I do something I've only tried once before. I let the Jiongu extend out of my eyes. I let it slowly overtake my entire face, becoming a kind of thread armor. I let it cover all of my visible skin. Just to really sell the idea, I have it form a crown of moving thorns. Ever shifting, ever pulsing. Alive.

"You ain't got nothing on me. What's a couple of horns and a new skin color when I have a literal monster inside me?"

The Sound Four still, either from my gruesome new look or my words.

"You're not scared of us?" Jirobo asks. Okay, so they paused because I didn't react like normal. I like to think it was because I scared them.

I laugh. "Scared of you? Nah, compared to some things I've seen, hell things I've fought, you're cuddly teddy bears. You don't know the meaning of scared until you've had a sentient chakra eating sword stabbed through your heart seconds after cutting off your head."

Kidomaru whistles. "Bet that hurt."

"It does explain his scar." Jirobo adds on in mild curiosity.

"If anything, I'm scared of your fashion sense. Giant purple ropes for belts?" I shudder. "Disgusting. It looks terrible."

"We can trade war stories later. We need to move." Sakon pushes us forward. "We have to get out of here before the rest of their team arrives. We'll need to set up a defensible spot while we deal with the backlash from going level two."

We run for five minutes. The only reason we didn't keep going further is because the Sound Four reverted out of their level two mode. They dropped like stones. Panting, laying on the ground. Easy to kill. If I ever wanted to turn around today, now would be the perfect time. I can't though. I don't know how badly it could affect Sasuke.

We rest in silence for hours.

"Alright, let's move." Sakon says. "We've rested long enough, we can make it to Sound non stop easily."

We get up and start running. This is wrong. Where's the retrieval team? They should have been here by now. Why aren't they here?

Sakura, she's the one who told Tsunade about Sasuke's defection. She's not here to do it, so that means Tsunade doesn't know yet. She won't know until Genma and his team get back to Konoha. Shit, we might make it in time for Orochimaru to use Sasuke's body. I'll just have to hope that the delays my presence caused are good enough. Otherwise I'll need to kill everyone here and take Sasuke away to safety. I don't even know if I can do that.

Kidomaru would have to die first. I can't guarantee I can get out of his webbing and if I am trapped it is over. Sakon and Ukon would go next, I can probably get them both in one go if I am quick about it. Plus the Jiongu will deal with them if they try to assimilate with me. Tayuya would be next. I could probably get the Jiongu to shut down my hearing so all of her audio genjutsu would have no effect on me, then I'd just have to dodge her weird summons. Jirobo would be last. His best move is to make a chakra eating earth dome and his brute strength, I can handle that easily.

That plan is crushed because of one tiny thing.

"You all have taken too much time." A new voice cuts through the air. "Orochimaru-sama was forced to take an inferior body. Now tell me, where is Sasuke Uchiha?"

"K-Kimimaro?" Tayuya nervously says. "W-what are you d-doing here?"

"I am here to make sure Sasuke Uchiha makes it to Orochimaru-sama." He coughs into his hand. It comes away red. "As my last act in this world, I will be of use to Orochimaru-sama one last time. Now come, we will travel together."

He sets a much faster speed for us to follow. No one complains, not even me. I don't dare to oppose this man, even on his deathbed he would kill me. My spare hearts would only slow him down. The only good thing to come of this is that he told me Orochimaru was forced into a different body. That gives Sasuke and I a three year buffer. I can work with that, I can convince Sasuke to leave Sound by then.

Only a short hour later we come up on the Valley of the End. We don't slow down to look, we don't even enter it. We go around straight into the Land of Sound. It only takes us minutes to reach the Hidden Sound Village, Otogakure or Oto for short. It is a truly hidden village, the entrance is hidden beneath a tree and is very hard to find unless you already know it is there.

"Oh how wonderful!" We're greeted by Orochimaru himself.

Entrance to The Base, Five Minutes Ago

"Kabuto, what are the odds of Alvarcus being with them?" Orochimaru is impatiently waiting at the gates. "I gave the Sound Four explicit instructions to seek him out as well."

"They're slim." Kabuto idly says from the shadows. "They would be slimmer if I didn't cut his ties to the Leaf for you."

Orochimaru narrows his eyes. "You're lucky you're useful still. I never ordered that. You went against the plan. You caused my child pain, and maybe even turned him against me forever. He was much more hostile the last time we met. He even threatened to kill me!" Orochimaru smiles to himself. "I'm strangely proud of him, he's growing up so fast."

"Yes, but I did it for you." Kabuto daintily pushes his glasses up his nose. "If I let his parents and useless teammate live then you wouldn't get what you want until much later. I sped up the process so you can finally obtain 'your child.'" He says the final two words with no small amount of hate.

"Careful Kabuto. Even you are replaceable and I'm always needing more test subjects."

"Of course, Orochimaru-sama. I'm here to complete whatever task you give me." Kabuto bows slightly.

"Remain in the shadows." He dismisses him with a lazy wave of the hand. "I'll call you if I need you."

They fall into a tense silence for a few minutes.

The Sound Four, Kimimaro, Alvarcus and the still sealed Sasuke burst into the entrance of the base.

"Oh how wonderful!" We're greeted by Orochimaru himself. "I was confident I could sway Sasuke to come to me, but to get Alvarcus as well! This is such a pleasant surprise. I knew you would come to me eventually, I just didn't expect it to be so soon. Tell me child," I shiver, "what made you come to me?" He leans forward in anticipation of my response. "Was it the promise of power? Perhaps your thirst for knowledge?"

"Sasuke did." That is all I say.

Orochimaru's eyes light up. "Sasuke convinced you? Marvelous, simply marvelous. You must tell me more later. For now, rest. Then we shall talk at length. Perhaps over dinner? I find conversation to be much more pleasant with food."

"I will wait for Sasuke to be unsealed. Then we can both tell you our reasons for coming. Might I suggest steak for dinner?" Oh Kami, I'm playing nice with Orochimaru of all people. "I know that I want to bite into something meaty after today. Oh, a BBQ! That could be good too."

Orochimaru laughs his evil laugh. "Kukukuku, why not both? Today is a day for celebration! It isn't everyday I get two new pupils. You should have a nice meal before the hell I am about to put you through. Once I am done, you'll be lucky if you can raise a glass of water off a table."

I smirk. "That'll never happen. You gave me the Jiongu, remember? It replaced my muscles."

"And?" Orochimaru prods me to continue. "I haven't been able to study a host of the Jiongu for long, the host usually died before I could make any real headway."

"The Jiongu doesn't get tired. I can run for days, literally. I've done it before. The only fatigue I have to worry about is all mental."

Orochimaru eyes me up and down. I feel violated. "Oh I can't wait to see what makes you tick! The things I could learn from you about the Jiongu alone! Not to mention what else you must know."

I wince. This is going to be tricky. "I don't have what you think I do." Orochimaru stills. "Now, before you freak out and do something rash, I still have knowledge of things you've never heard of before. It just isn't what you expected."

"Explain, I am curious." He doesn't look mad, I could be okay. "I was confident you knew of past civilizations and I was hopeful you might have a forgotten jutsu or two. What can you offer?"

Might as well use the big guns first. "I know a language that doesn't exist today. I'm fluent, I can also both read and write in it. It is technically my first language." Orochimaru grins like a maniac. Whoops, tautology. "When you say I'm from an ancient civilization, you might be right. The world I know of as the Before is nothing like this one. The continents don't match up either. I could be from eons in the past."

Orochimaru lovingly put his hand on my shoulder. "Alvarcus, that is so much more than I expected. You simply must teach me about this world!"

"Orochimaru-sama, did I do well?" Kimimaro asks with a great deal of effort.

"Of course you did. You always have." Orochimaru distractedly says. He hasn't looked away from me at all, he's still analyzing me like I'm the world's best puzzle.

"Thank you." Kimimaro falls over dead.

"I was wondering when that would happen. Kabuto, could you get him to cold storage? I'm sure we can find a use for his corpse."

Kabuto walks out of the shadows and seals Kimimaro into a body scroll. "Of course Orochimaru-sama, shall I prep the lab as well?" He eyes me like a piece of meat. "We do have a new specimen we can study."

I know that voice, it causes warning flags to pop up in my head. It isn't just for who he is, he did something. That voice did something, something terrible but I can't place it exactly. It extends past what I know he could become, it's something more. What did Kabuto do to me? I don't recall him ever being truly on my bad side before.

"No, this one is not for study." Orochimaru tells Kabuto the best news I could possibly hear. "This one is going to be taught and made into one of my best shinobi. Maybe even better than you."

Kabuto smiles. "Unless he dies during training." I hope that isn't common. I can probably take it. Sasuke withstood it during cannon, so it can't be that challenging. Unless Orochimaru rigged it so his precious next body wouldn't die on him, which is something I can see him doing.

Why does Kabuto's voice unsettle me so much? It bothers me more than Orochimaru's and I hate Orochimaru.

Before I can really start to figure out why, the barrel that Sasuke is sealed into starts to vibrate.

"Here we go!" Orochimaru gleefully calls out. "Fair warning, he will be quite... ravenous for a while after unsealing. He may attack anyone and everyone."

The top unseals itself with a loud hiss. Black fog pours out over the edges and pools on the floor. Sasuke slowly stands up and steps out of the barrel, he's covered in the first level of the curse seal. It looks like his body is covered in tattoos.

"I feel good. Really good. Like I've dropped a huge weight I didn't know I was carrying."

"You alright there Sasuke?" I call out to him. He turns to me and grins evilly.

"Alright? I'm better than alright! I'm amazing! I feel like I could defeat you easily now!" He gets a mad gleam in his eyes. "Want to spar?" He starts walking towards me. "Come on, I need to figure out what I can do. Who better to push my limits than you?"

"Of course you two can spar!" Orochimaru chimes in. "Just not here, we have places meant for sparring. The entrance to my base is not one of them. If you would both follow me." He starts walking deeper into the base.

"Alvarcus, was that Orochimaru?" Sasuke sounds baffled. He reverted out of the first level of the curse seal because he was so surprised.

"Yep. We're already in Sound. You slept through the whole trip." I hear a few chuckles from the Sound Four behind Sasuke and me. "Well come on, if you want your ass kicked who am I to stop you?" I taunt Sasuke.

He grins. "I'll be doing the ass kicking, thank you." We take off after Orochimaru with the Sound Four right behind us.

One of Sound's Training Fields

Sasuke stares at me.

I stare at Sasuke.

The Sound Four are off to the side making bets on who will win. Only Tayuya bets that I will be victorious.

Orochimaru and Kabuto look very impatient, they want us to start already.

"Rules?" I ask Sasuke.

"No killing. No crippling attacks either. Knock out or surrender means the match is over." Sasuke rattles off basic rules for every spar.

"No destroying my hearts either. They are not easy to replace." Although, I am pretty sure that everyone here would be fair game to kill. Even the prisoners, I doubt Orochimaru would kidnap someone that people would look for. He probably goes after thieves, bandits and murderers.

Aw crap. I left Konoha before I got my fire heart. That's going to be annoying to replace.

"Fine." Sasuke agrees. "If I hit one in the mask it is considered destroyed. Agreed?"

"Agreed."

With the rules decided it is now time to start the spar. We still don't move. I want to see what Sasuke will do, and he is probably waiting for me to use my monsters.

"Lesson one: Taijutsu." Sasuke says.

He appears before me in a burst of speed, his arm poised to strike at my throat. I lazily intercept his attack with my left arm.

"Taijutsu it is."

I kick at his knees, aiming to slow him down. He dodges backwards, but is right back in attacking range in the next moment. He sends a flurry of quick punches at me, I dodge most and block those I couldn't. He's forcing me on the defensive, he's setting the pace for the battle. I can't have that. I catch his next punch, forcing him to stay in one spot. His eyes widen slightly. I rear back and slam my foot into his chest sending him flying across the training field.

"Come on Sasuke, that doesn't show improvement. You've always been better at taijutsu than me, you should have dodged that kick even if I had a hold of you." I'm not even lying, I've tried that same move on him before and he has contorted out of the way. "Don't get cocky just because you have gotten a power boost. I'm still strong in my own right. You'll have to take me seriously."

Inky black marks flow across Sasuke's skin, covering his whole body before settling in one spot. "I am." He's using the curse seal now. Level one.

A kick slams into the back of my right knee forcing me to kneel. Sasuke relentlessly attacks, getting in four good punches to the back of my head before I can recover. I lash out behind me sweeping him off of his feet. He falls to the ground and I follow up with a punch aimed at his solar plexus. He rolls out of the way and I bury my fist into the ground.

Sasuke climbs to his feet and raises and eyebrow. "You're really not holding back on your punches."

"And you're one to talk." His punches hurt. "I think I have a concussion. How does that even work? I don't have a brain to concuss."

He smirks at me. Arrogant bastard. "Let's move on then. Lesson two: Genjutsu."

"Oh come on!" I whine like a child. "You know I only know one genjutsu and it is a utility one! How am I supposed to attack?"

~The host will not be ensnared!~

"Damn you're good Sasuke, I barely notice you already placed a genjutsu on me." I've got to give him that, he is going to be scary at genjutsu with his Sharingan.

Pain! "Unfortunately for you, I'm immune to most genjutsu." Pain! "The Jiongu senses the foreign chakra and breaks me out." Pain! "I have no idea which ones you're using, but they are not going to work."

"The Jiongu is so unfair." Sasuke huffs in annoyance.

"The Sharingan is more unfair. You can practically see what I am about to do! You only have to watch a jutsu to learn it and can cast crazy genjutsu and see through them easily! Who cares if I have access to all the elements! If I can't hit you I can't kill you."

"Fine! Lesson two is over." Sasuke takes a leap backwards, giving himself plenty of space between us. "Lesson three: Ninjutsu."

"Finally!" I remove my shirt, no need to ruin a perfectly good shirt during a spar. I really need to figure out a better way to do this, I go through a ridiculous amount of shirts. "Tell ya what, I won't use my monsters. I'll give you a handicap."

"I'll make you use them. Grand Fireball!" Sasuke spits out his signature jutsu towards me. I calmly raise an earth wall to intercept it. "Tch."

"You'll have to do better than that. Devouring Earth!" I slam my hands on the ground and jaws of earth clamp around Sasuke. Or what was Sasuke, the jaws crushed a log that he replaced with. "Where did you find a log down here? We're in a cave!"

"Phoenix Flowers!" Sasuke spits out multiple small fireballs towards me. I know that there are shuriken hidden inside from our previous spars and that he has wires to control them attached.

I use that against him. I send out my chakra strings, one per each fire ball and latch them onto the hidden shuriken.

"Lightning Whip!"

Lightning arcs up the wires and into Sasuke. He drops the wires and I bat the shuriken out of the way.

"Face it Sasuke, I'm better than you at ninjutsu. You can't use genjutsu against me. Our taijutsu is nearly even. You can't beat me and you know it. I'm not even going all out!" I should not have said that. That was a tremendously bad idea.

"Neither am I!" Sasuke yells back at me.

He's pushing himself into his level two mode. His skin turns into a dark gray, his hair changes from black to a dark blue. His fingers become clawed. Huge grotesque hand/wing... things sprout from his back.

"Yes! I can feel the power! The strength!" He experimentally moves his new appendages around. "You don't stand a chance now!"

"Dude, you're ugly." He quits admiring himself and turns to me with a shocked expression. "Just show that form to your fan girls and you will never have a problem with them again. Are those giant hands coming out of your back?"

"DIE!" Is Sasuke's response. He lunges at me with a crazy amount of speed he didn't have before. I barely dodge in time. He doesn't let up, he's rushing at me with everything he has. Punches, kicks, swipes, nothing is off limits. Finally fed up with my dodging he leaps back to put a few meters between us.

"Sasuke, just calm down!" He ignores me and takes a stance I know all too well. One arm pointed down, the other holding the wrist.

"CHIDORI!" This time when he lunges at me I can't dodge. His Chidori enhanced speed is too great for me.

Squelch

~He hurt us!~

His arm is buried in my chest. Up to his elbow. He lanced a hole straight through me. I look up from his arm to his face. I can't believe it. He actually destroyed one of my hearts. The one that was in my chest.

~Host, I don't understand. Of all the humans we've met, he was the one that I never thought would hurt us. Do we... do we kill him now?~

"Sasuke?" I shakily say.

"Who is weaker now?" He asks arrogantly. This isn't him, he would never do this. The power lust from level two has to be getting to him, influencing how he thinks. I refuse to believe this is Sasuke.

"This isn't you. Sasuke, this isn't you. Come back to your senses."

He laughs. Laughs at me. "Of course this is me! Who else would I be? I feel amazing! This power is great! It's better than the Jiongu!"

He's drunk with power. "Fine." I grip his arm that is still in my chest with my left hand. "If you won't come back to your senses, I'll make you."

I crush his arm. There is a sickening snap that echos throughout the chamber. He screams in pain and leaps away from me.

The hole in my chest is slowly stitched closed, I'm missing a huge chunk of skin where my heart should be, all that is there is the Jiongu. "You brought this on yourself. This is your last chance, release the curse seal and come back."

"No!" He roars with insanity in his eyes. "I need this!" He runs towards me, intent on spearing me again with his clawed hands.

"So be it." I will my lightning, earth and wind heart out. I keep water inside me. I'm lucky he destroyed one of my two lightning hearts. False Darkness lances out towards Sasuke, forcing him to dodge left. Pressure Damage slams into him hurling him across the field to my waiting earth heart. Jaws of earth snap upwards and trap Sasuke, confining him to only one spot. "Change back."

"NO!" With great effort he breaks out of his earthy prison. "I will defeat you! I will kill you! I will prove that I am better than you! I've always been better than you! I'll always be better than you!"

"Not today." He's exactly where I want him to be, he's right where I've made my chakra strings. I switch them into water whips and immediately wrap them around my raging friend. "Today I win."

False Darkness tears across the field and strikes Sasuke right in the chest. I get some backlash from the electricity traveling up the water whips. Sasuke's whole body slumps into unconsciousness and his level two form fades.

I walk to his side and kneel next to him. "Sasuke, what good is power if it causes you to lose your mind?"

"An impressive fight." Orochimaru says as Kabuto rushes to the downed Sasuke. "I didn't expect you to be victorious. Tell me, why did you hold back? You could have used your full strength early on in the fight, yet you didn't. Is it weakness? Is it out of pity? Deceit perhaps? Do you not want him to know how strong you truly are?"

"A little of everything really. I don't want to actually hurt him, even if he went crazy he's still my friend. Call it weakness if you want. Pity? I do pity Sasuke but I respect his strength. I didn't hold back because of pity."

"And what of deceit?" Orochimaru prods me to continue.

"I have no need to deceive my only friend here. He's seen me battle before, he knows what I am capable of. He knew I was holding back the entire time, it is probably what pushed him so far. He wanted to see if he is good enough to make me go all out."

Orochimaru grins, "Is he?"

That one simple question gave me pause. Is Sasuke good enough to make me go all out? Could he force me to bring my entire strength to bear?

"No. Not yet, but one day he will be greater than me. Then I'll be asking if I could make him go all out against me. Of that I have no doubt."

"Marvelous. That wasn't the pinnacle of your strength?" Orochimaru's body is brimming with joy. "I knew you would be amazing, you do take after me. But this? Simply outstanding! I'll have to have the Sound Four fight against you just to gauge your strength. The planning behind your moves, the execution and the utilization of all of the elements so fluidly at such a young age!"

I sigh. "If you want me to fight the Sound Flunkies whatever." Said flunkies bristle at my insult, Tayuya just laughs and flashes me a thumbs up. She's weird like that. "How about another time? I did just lose a heart, I'm not at my best. I haven't been for quite a while now."

Orochimaru floods with concern. "We can't have that! Tell me, what kind of heart do you need?"

Sound Base, Orochimaru's Prison Complex

Orochimaru and I walk into his Prison Complex. It is packed full of people, not one cell is empty. There is a wide circular room surrounded by cells. He must release prisoners to fight right here. Most of those in the cells have a crazed look about them.

Orochimaru turns to me, "You need another fire heart. Any preference? What traits do you want?"

This feels wrong. It is like I am shopping for new clothes. I feel dirty, unclean. "One with a large chakra supply would be nice. Two of my hearts are from gennin, one is at a chunin level and the last a jonin."

Orochimaru grabs a list off the wall. As he is reading through it he asks me, "Where did you get your hearts from?"

"My current batch or all of them?"

He shrugs. "Might as well tell me all of them. My curiosity would demand it anyways."

"The first three came from one of your gennin teams." He quirks an eyebrow at me. "Thanks for that by the way. You gave me water, earth and lighting hearts."

"I always did wonder what happened to those three. What were their names?" He thinks for three seconds. "Must have been unimportant. Continue." He goes back to reading the list of prisoners.

"The wind heart came from a Suna chunin. He killed my parents." I watch Orochimaru's reaction carefully.

"You're parents are dead? How unfortunate. At least you have me." Oh Kami, he's trying to link himself to me as a parental figure? How fucked up is that?

I clear my throat. "I lost a heart, my original fire heart, to an enemy."

"Who?" He looks up from the list this time. He's genuinely curious. This will surprise him.

"The same person who cut my head off. Kisame Hoshigaki." I smirk at him. That's right, you aren't the only S-rank threat I've walked away from.

"Kisame? From Kiri?" Orochimaru sounds doubtful.

"I assume so. He was wielding Samehada, that is usually a big give away." I watch Orochimaru carefully. I want to see how he reacts. What I witness doesn't make sense.

He's proud.

"Consider me impressed. The Sound Four might not be enough to test you. I may have to step in myself. Now, I believe you're one heart short of a complete list? Where did you get your lightning heart from?"

"It isn't as impressive as fighting Kisame, so be prepared to be disappointed. Aoi Rokusho. He was a missing nin from Konoha that Sasuke and I bumped into on a mission. We killed him and I took his heart. I only wish it was fire."

"He was listed as a B-rank target in Konoha's bingo book. He had the Sword of the Thunder God if memory serves."

I nod. "Yep. Brought it back to Konoha. Right now I'm wishing we kept it for Sasuke to use."

Orochimaru is surprised. I think, his body straightened minutely. All I can see is his back while he's reviewing the list. "You didn't want it for yourself?"

"Nah, swords aren't my thing. I'm more of an overwhelming force, swords require grace and precision. That's Sasuke's forte. I'm a sledgehammer, a juggernaut. Use me when you want something demolished or need someone who can take a ridiculous amount of abuse. Sasuke is a scalpel, use him when you need something done with care. Sure I can do a delicate job if I have too, but it will never be as good as a job as Sasuke would do." I extend out a lightning whip. "Plus, isn't it a bit redundant? I can already make ten of these, what use do I have for a sword made of electricity?"

"Interesting." Orochimaru says. "The Hokage didn't break up your team? She left you together? It doesn't make sense. Usually teams have one specialty, they are focused around one aspect that every member has."

I laugh, the pleasant sound startles Orochimaru so much that he looks away from the list.

"She would never break us up. Do you have any idea how effective we were? She could toss us in any situation and we had the tools to come out alive. We took on everything from a fully transformed jinchuriki to S-ranked missing nin as gennin. Imagine what we will be able to do in a few years!

"So you were part of the group to defeat Gaara!" Orochimaru exclaims. He knows Gaara by name, that is not good. Suddenly he gets very still. The temperature in the room drops. "Tell me, was it you who summoned the Toad?"

That is right, he has major issues with Jiraya and Tsunade. It would explain the killing intent aimed at me right now.

"Please, you think I would settle for Toads?" The killing intent vanishes. "Actually, that is one of the things I want you to teach me. How to summon."

He turns back to the list. How many names does he have to look through? "Oh, you want to sign the Snake Contract?" He sounds oddly smug.

"Nope, I want to get my own. Snakes are cool and all, but I don't think we would mesh well."

"Hmm..." Orochimaru appears deep in thought. "I find that summons are based more on personality than other traits. I myself am an exception. I look rather snake like, but I also act like one. You are a creature of opportunity. I expect you to get a predator, or maybe even a scavenger as your summon animal. A hyena perhaps? Maybe a vulture?" Orochimaru straightens and points at the list. "Here we are, someone who will work."

I read over his shoulder to see what their name is. There isn't a name, simply Test Subject 3473.

"I've only recorded information about her, I have yet to do any tweaking." He makes it sound so innocent. "Go on in to the Arena. I'll open her cell and she'll come out. Fair warning, the prisoners are trained to attack whoever is in the arena with them that isn't wearing a Sound headband. Off you go!" He shoos me into the arena.

I hear a lock click open, and a door slide. A woman walks out of the open cage. "What's this?" She says condescendingly. "They want me to kill a child?" An insane grin splits her face. She's missing most of her teeth. "It has been a long time since I killed a child. Since before I got here." She's a child murderer. I have no qualms about what will happen next.

She walks right up to me, no fear in her eyes. I let her get close, close enough to touch me. She lovingly runs a hand through my hair and grips the back of my head. "Any last words dear?" She coos sweetly at me.

I clear my throat. "Yes, I'll be taking your heart. Thank you for coming so close to me, it makes this much easier." I see her eyes widen in surprise at my nonchalantly said words. At that exact moment I spear the Jiongu into her chest and let it take her heart. I rip it out of her body within half a second, it is before her face when she dies. She got to see her beating heart as her last image. Good, child murders deserve no less.

I let the Jiongu place her heart into my back where the fire mask is. The entire prison complex is completely silent the entire time. Everyone is watching me in either fear or disgust. I'm finally back at 100%. Five hearts, one of each element. I need to take better care of them, I shouldn't be going through so many this quickly.

I leave her corpse on the floor and go back to Orochimaru. He's pleased at me, happy for me. How strange. All I did was kill a murder.

"Wonderful show Alvarcus. I have no doubt the prisoners will be much easier to control for a few weeks. The fear of our own resident Heart Thief will keep them in line." Orochimaru says.

I sigh, "I'm never escaping that title."

Orochimaru laughs. "Kukukuku, even if it is from Konoha it is very accurate, I find myself quite fond of it."

"Yay." I blandly reply. "Can we go see if Sasuke is up? Also I want to know who the Sound Four bet on. That promises to be very interesting, in fact I think I deserve a cut as the winner."

"Kukukuku, maybe you would do well as a Snake summoner."