Inspired by If I Had Wings, whose profile y'all should really check out. We were both in agreement that my page was severely lacking in Kabuto being awesome, and that the site in general was lacking in Kabuto kicking Sasuke's ass. :D

Practice with action scenes, which I usually avoid like the plague, so please give me some feedback!

The Consequence of Pride

"A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you're looking down, you can't see something that's above you."

-C.S. Lewis

If there was any one person in the world Sasuke would hate to be beaten by in a fair fight, it was someone like Yakushi Kabuto. Someone who heedlessly obeyed and followed and practically groveled at the feet of that bastard of a snake, Orochimaru. Someone whose conceited little smirks (as if the guy knew something that he didn't) never failed to get under the Uchiha's skin and annoy him. Someone who walked around dressed entirely in purple, for Kami-sama's sake. (Though he supposed he couldn't hold the medic too much at fault for that… Spending such copious allotments of time around Orochimaru was sure to dull one's fashion sense. Not that Sasuke would know.)

He wasn't really sure what it was that made him hate the silver-haired ninja—well, hate is a strong word, one he reserved for Itachi; it was more like an intense dislike. Perhaps he just disliked him on general principle, because of who he represented. Because the sight of Kabuto was so closely associated with that of his master, whom Sasuke held in even greater contempt.

Or maybe it was because the dislike was mutual. Kabuto seemed, for whatever reason, to loathe him just as much, if not more. A day didn't go by in Otogakure without a snide, passive-aggressive remark passing from the medic's lips, or without constant reprimand at Sasuke for showing "disrespect" to Orochimaru, all of which the Uchiha ignored. He wasn't here to suck up to Orochimaru; he was here to get power from him. And the ruder he acted, the more Kabuto seemed to detest his presence.

Which was something Sasuke was rather wary of, on the long-awaited first day of his training, when Orochimaru declared that the two would have to spar.

Sasuke's response had been atypical: a glare at the smirking Kabuto and a snapped "Why?" at Orochimaru, who stood with folded arms and a leering expression in the dim, candle-lit room. It was a wide, rather dank area with stone walls and floors, the only furnishings several torches in all four corners of the room, and it reeked with the smell of death and decay, with the uncomfortable sensation that came from being underground. Even after a week of dwelling in these halls, Sasuke still wasn't quite used to it.

Adjusting his glasses with a clink, Kabuto interjected, "I wouldn't ask 'why' if I were you. I'd just do as you're told." Sasuke could punch him. Well, with the way things were shaping up, he'd probably soon have a chance to.

"Now now, Kabuto," Orochimaru chastised lightly, and then turned to Sasuke with a grin that nearly sent shivers down his spine. (Nearly being the crucial word. Uchiha didn't shiver with fear. Ever.) "Allow me to explain, Sasuke-kun. You see, before we can begin training, I need to first observe your current skill set in action…to see your fighting style, ninjutsu…you get the idea."

Oh, well, that…didn't make any sense at all. He frowned, irked. "But you already know all that. You've seen me fight before." 'Seen me fight'…you as good as stalked me during the Chuunin exams, you sick freak.

"Aah, yes, but you see," the Sannin explained, looking at him in that hungry way that made Sasuke want to run as fast as he could in the opposite direction, "I've unfortunately yet to see you fight without relying on those special eyes of yours, which is why I want you to fight Kabuto…without using your Sharingan."

All anticipation Sasuke had had for effortlessly kicking Kabuto's ass vanished instantly and was replaced by utter horror. Fight Kabuto…without his Sharingan? He acknowledged that his kekkei genkai were becoming a bit of a crutch lately, but still; Orochimaru might as well have asked him to fight with his eyes closed. And come to think of it, without the Sharingan, there wasn't really much of a difference. He'd essentially be going in blind.

"Very well," Orochimaru said with an air of finality, though Sasuke had voiced no consent whatsoever. "Let's see what you've got, Sasuke-kun." With that, he stepped back with a sinister smile as his right-hand man stepped forward, smirking at the dark-haired boy. He looked admittedly sinister himself, actually, with the candlelight reflecting on his lenses and hiding his eyes behind the orange glow. If Sasuke were to be completely honest with himself, he'd have to confess that the silver-haired Kabuto looked a little terrifying at the moment.

On the other hand, he was goddamn Uchiha Sasuke; what right did he have to be intimidated by some weakling medic nin? None at all, really, with or without his Sharingan. He allowed a smug little smirk of his own to tug at the corners of his mouth as any doubts he'd had fled his mind. This fight would be wrapped up in five minutes, tops, and at the end of it, Four Eyes wouldn't know what had hit him.

Under Orochimaru's eye, the two strode to the center of the room, not speaking, their footsteps filling up the silence. When they were about fifteen feet apart, they both turned on their heels and faced each other, Sound nin to ex-Leaf, man to boy, Yakushi to Uchiha.

Glaring at the medic nin, Sasuke shifted his weight onto the left side of his body and leaned forward slightly, preparing to dash forward and hit him hard before he could react. Kabuto, conversely, stood absolutely still, with that irritating half-smile on his face, showing no sign of apprehension whatsoever. His mistake, Sasuke thought.

There were several moments in which no one moved or said a word, or even seemed to breathe. His ocher eyes sliding back and forth from Sasuke, to Kabuto, and back to Sasuke again, Orochimaru waited a split-second before hissing, "Begin."

Sasuke was already speeding towards Kabuto, kunai in hand, before the word had escaped the Sannin's pale lips, the air rushing past him with a whoosh. Gripping the cool hilt of his knife tightly, not even stopping to look at Kabuto's face, he made to pierce his side with the blade, mostly just to gauge the medic's reaction speed, only to be surprised when Kabuto dodged the kunai and sidestepped with shocking agility, throwing Sasuke momentarily off-balance. Brow furrowed, Sasuke instantly knelt and swung his leg around in an attempt to knock Kabuto over, only to miss when Kabuto leapt neatly over his leg. Not to be deterred, Sasuke stood and threw another punch at the older teen, only to have his wrist grabbed in one fluid movement, and, pausing to look up for a moment, Sasuke saw for the first time the expression on Kabuto's face, and it gave him a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach: the look on his face could only be described as bloodlust, a twisted smile that cracked Kabuto's usually cool and calm facade, and suddenly Sasuke had the bad feeling that he'd underestimated the medic ninja.

Wrestling his arm away from a surprisingly strong grip, Sasuke took a few steps back, planning to analyze the situation a little more carefully, but when he lifted his head, it was only to be sprinted at by Kabuto, the palms of whose hands radiated with a blue glow that could only be pure chakra. Caught off guard without the Sharingan, Sasuke fumbled trying to dodge the attack, giving Kabuto an opening which he used to press his right hand, burning with chakra, onto Sasuke's upper chest.

Immediately Sasuke felt the effect of the attack, a sudden, painful difficulty drawing breath, and he realized exactly what had been done: somehow, Kabuto had used his chakra to rupture Sasuke's internal organs…in this case, he'd hit his lungs, and hard, though not hard enough to kill him completely, even though he'd had the opportunity to do so. Anyone who didn't know Kabuto very well might think he'd spared Sasuke to avoid Orochimaru's wrath if he'd seriously harmed him, but Sasuke knew better; the man was a sadist, and inflicting pain on Sasuke without actually killing him was probably his own demented idea of entertainment. Oh, Sasuke had definitely underestimated his opponent.

"Uhn." Grunting from the pain in his chest, Sasuke aimed a kick at Kabuto's chest and, thankfully, made contact, throwing him backwards and giving him a few seconds to recover.

Unfortunately, without the Sharingan, his only real aces to play now were his Fire Style ninjutsu and his Chidori, and the former asset had now pretty much been robbed of him, as Fire Style required a good deal of steady breathing control, which he now lacked thanks to the hit his lungs had taken. He'd have to rely entirely on taijutsu and the Chidori.

But now he had to think fast, as Kabuto had picked himself up and had whipped out a real, metal scalpel before Sasuke had finished planning out his attack. Trying to even out his ragged breathing, Sasuke decided that if he was going to end this, he had to do it now, before Kabuto managed to land another hit on him and put him out of commission once and for all. Hurriedly summoning all his chakra into the palm of his hand focusing on manipulating its nature to Raiton, Sasuke held tightly onto his right wrist with his left hand to steady it as power surged through and out his hand in profuse amounts. His ears began to pound as the chirping sound of electrical charge grew louder and louder. Out of the corner of his eye, he could make out Orochimaru watching him intensely, clearly eager to see how this would play out. Looking up, he saw Kabuto slow down, starting to fall back at the sight of Sasuke's jutsu. He had to act now!

Racing forward, breathing heavily, Sasuke thrust his hand forward as the chirping sound reached its highest, sharpest pitch, saw Kabuto's wide-eyed look of dread, and let out a yell of effort as his Chidori hit the medic nin square in the chest.

There was something just short of an explosion; a loud burst of chirping filled the room and was then silenced, and a bright light temporarily blinded Sasuke to his surroundings. Hair and clothes billowing backwards from the force of the technique, he marveled for a moment at what he'd done. That was easily nearly the biggest Chidori he'd ever put out, second only in power to the one he'd used against Naruto; and definitely fatal, as Kabuto hadn't had anything to defend himself with, like the Rasengan. He was finished, Sasuke thought with a triumphant smile. "Heh," he got out hoarsely, confident in his victory, albeit pretty much spent from the hit he'd taken and from chakra exertion.

His laugh, however, died somewhere on its way out of his throat, as he realized once he could see clearly that the room was empty apart from him and Orochimaru, Kabuto nowhere to be found.

For one brief, foolish moment, he thought maybe his jutsu had completely annihilated the other teen from the face of the earth. However, just as soon as he'd realized, with some horror, what must have happened, he heard the telltale crumbling of the stone floor behind him and turned just time to see Kabuto emerge from its depths, hand glowing, and punch him, hard, in the stomach. Too used to the benefit of the Sharingan, his reaction speed had been handicapped by being unable to use it.

The force of the blow was such that it sent him sprawling, snapping his neck back so that his head hit the floor upon impact with the ground. He felt the pain in his head, like the room was spinning, before the pain from Kabuto's hit registered with his nervous system—but when the pain did hit, damn, did it hurt like a bitch. In addition to the ache that usually accompanied a regular punch, Kabuto's chakra-emanating fist had given him the agonizing sensation that his arteries had been set on fire.

"Ughhh…" he groaned, clearly beaten, the burning pain in his head, stomach, and throat too much for him to carry on. A shadow fell over him. Wincing, through half-lidded eyes, he looked up into the smirking face of the man who'd defeated him. Avoiding looking Kabuto in the eye—or glasses, Sasuke noticed the large hole in his purple shirt (He'd forever hate the color.), the edges singed and frayed where his Chidori had made contact, though the skin beneath was completely undamaged. There was no one in the world he wanted to speak to less at the moment, but he had to know… "How?" he choked out.

Pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, Kabuto answered with an infuriating disposition of superiority, "Your lightning jutsu was admittedly powerful, Sasuke-kun, but you forget…one of the reasons Orochimaru-sama holds me in such high favor is because of my ability to heal and regenerate cells. I used my chakra to completely repair the damage caused by your jutsu mere moments after it had hit."

So that was it. Sasuke grimaced with pain again as Kabuto bent down and said in a low, smug voice, "Next time, I wouldn't be so sure of yourself, Sasuke-kun. This may come as a surprise to you, but you won't always be the strongest of your fellows." With that, he stood, nodding to Orochimaru, who stood in the same place as before, watching the exchange.

"Well then," the snake-faced ninja said, "Kabuto, heal any injuries he sustained from the battle. As soon as you're done with that, we'll begin our training. It seems we have quite a bit of work to do."

That was the last thing Sasuke heard before he passed out.