Hello people, and welcome to my first story uploaded here ^^
This was originally a school project, and I suspect that may show in the way I´ve written. All chapters are already written, but since cliffhangers are soo nice (.) I´m gonna upload one chapter per day.
Anyways, I hope you´ll enjoy it~
1. One more Uchiha
Sasuke barely could stand on his own legs of exhaustion. All because of the fact that Naruto had fought against him moments ago with all of his strength, and Sasuke had responded with his own newly gained gift from Orochimaru.
But still, Naruto had enough energy to get himself from the fighting-arena in shape of a waterfall and two gigantic statues of some famous ninja´s from way back - or something.
He didn´t really care. But how could Naruto have more energy if they both used up about the same amount of power and chakra? Was he really that weak?
The upset and angry thoughts spun around in his head and made his vision get blurry. Soon, he felt all of his strength was leaving his legs and he fell, with the thoughts still dancing as quickly as before, but as he lost consciousness, they faded away into nothing, and were replaced by a black mental abyss.
Sasuke´s body fell to the ground, almost completely lifeless. The only thing that proved that he was alive was his heart rapidly pounding in his bruised chest.
But someone heard this. Someone who had watched the whole fight. Someone who was a master of spying and hiding.
Someone who was Zetsu.
Suddenly, a crack from beneath the ground was heard. A big green plant-like thing appeared, followed by a black robe decorated with red clouds. Yup, it was definitely him. The large venus-flytrap whitch was placed on his shoulders, which and revealed his face. His hair was short and green, his eyes yellow like the lights of a car - witch blinds you before you die. His entire body was parted in the middle - one side was black, and the other was white.
His eyes fell on the black-haired Uchiha, whose brother he worked with. Well, not all the time, but he saw him mostly every day, and he clearly could see some features from him on Sasuke´s face.
- Well well, what have we got here? said the black side of Zetsu, his lips not visibly moving. Itatchi´s little brother, right?
- You already know that, so why asking? the white side said in a gentle and soft voice.
If a person who didn´t know Zetsu actually was two persons in one body, he or she would probably wonder why his voice changed between the soft one and a dark, robotic one. This person wouldn´t understand why he kept talking to himself either.
- So are we just standing here, or are we going to start? the black side impatiently asked, gritting his teeth.
- I´d love to, but think a litte first, the white side replied.
- What am I to think of? My survival or a beat-up Uchiha´s life? the now very angry black side scolded. I´m hungry and I want to eat! We´ll discuss later!
Now, if you´re confused about this little conversation, let me tell you what it is about; Zetsu want´s to eat Sasuke´s body. He doesn´t eat any other flesh than human´s, you see. Many pepole call him a monster and a freak because of this.
The black side tried to take control over the entire body, but the white stopped him.
- Wait, before you do anything rash, think of this: what if we had two Uchihas in the Akatsuki? Wouldn´t that improve our chances of taking over the world? Pein would be pleased, wouldn´t he? Two Sharingans are better than one. And this boy obviously knows the nine-tailed´s bearer, right? What if we could manipulate him and get him to trick the nine-tailed into a situation where we would capture him? Think about it.
The black side wrinkled his invisible eyebrow for a little while. If Sasuke had been awake all this time he probably would have been praying to all gods that Zetsu would decide to spare his flesh from being consumed by his jaws.
Anyway, Sasuke wouldn´t have to worry about it anymore, because although the black side was really hungry and in need for energy, he also appreciated the thought of being praised by the Akatsuki´s leader, the strict Pein; whose biggest desire was to capture all the nine animal-demons, and then use them for world-domination.
So after one minute of brain-workout, finally the black side said:
- Ah, what the heck. He is just skin and bones anyway.
And with that, the white side knew he had won the untold contest in success-thinking. Zetsu picked Sasuke up like he would have picked up a sack, and was about to leave, when the white side halted. The other side frowned.
-Now what? Are we going to take him to Pein or not?
- It´s not that, I just came to think of one thing: what will he do when he finds out that Itachi is there? He´ll probably try to kill him or something, according to Itachi himself.
The black side smiled evilly.
- Don´t worry, I know how we´ll get that problem out of the way…
- Are you sure about this? If Pein or anyone finds out, we´re dead, the white side said.
- Don´t worry, the black side said. If anyone would snitch, It would be Orochimaru himself. But if he comes anywhere close to the Akatsuki´s domain, he knows what happens. The same thing for his workers.
The white side seemed to be satisfied with this, but still; what if someone would catch him when he where in Orochimaru´s territory? Only Zetsu against Orochimaru plus all of his workmen, that would be a safe death.
He had to be extra careful. Who knows; maybe the ground would be poisoned with corroding acid? He would mainly travel through the ground, using the venus-flytrap as protection for his head.
Zetsu tried not to think of the most horrible things that could happen as he slipped through the corridors in Orochimaru´s castle.
Orochimaru was a former member of the Akatsuki, but he had failed trying to take Itachi´s body for his own use, so then he could do nothing but flee. During the years he had built up an own organisation called the "Sound village". It had considerable more members than the Akatsuki, but most of them where not that strong. Only about ten pepole had a chance of surviving in a battle between one of them against an Akatsuki-member.
Zetsu had arrived in Orochimaru´s office now, but he kept hiding. He saw a man step into the room. The man had long, silk-shining black hair. His features was like a snake´s; amber narrow eyes, skin so pale it almost was purple, hollow cheeks and often a large smirk placed on his face.
This man was a master at convincing children to join the Sound village. Then he would train them from the day they got hypnotized by his snake-like behavior until the day they died. Because of this, many people whom lacked respect, joked about him being a pedophile and such.
Orochimaru didn´t have to worry about dying. He had lived for almost seventy years by now, but he still looked like a man in his late twenty´s. He had his own way of creating immortality.
Zetsu watched him as he went to the window to gaze at the beautiful natural province below him. He closed his eyes and the infamous smirk appeared on his pale face.
This was wiped of and changed into a somewhat surprised expression when Zetsu´s voice broke the silence.
- Don´t you ever miss the Akatsuki?
Orochimaru recognized Zetsu´s dark voice, so he put on the confident smirk again and said:
- Not at all, my friend. You see, here I´m the leader - and I treat my henchmen much better than Pein, so they do anything I tell them to with considerable more delight and perfection than you. And on top of that, I think that the Akatsuki has gotten a little bit sloppy lately. For example, my ring. Isn´t that important too?
Zetsu rolled his eyes at the snakeman´s convenient way to take the Sound village to the sky, while pushing down the Akatsuki. He said - in his gentle voice, trying to be as snake-like as Orochimaru:
- We had taken care of your ring earlier if we could. But I´m not here to do that today. I´m coming with a request.
Orochimaru´s interest was caught, but only by a little.
- And what does Pein want from me?
- Not Pein, but me, the white side replied and held Sasuke´s limp body up. He was so pale that he could be mistaken for a corpse, but he was still alive. The snakeman´s eyes widened a little. The unattentive couldn´t possibly see this. Then Orochimaru said:
- If that is the trade, I´m willing to do a lot of thing´s for you, my friend.
The black side of Zetsu sneered:
- Don´t think too high, he belongs to us.
- Then what´s the plan?
Zetsu´s white side took over:
- We want two Sharingan´s in the Akatsuki. We want you to give him amnesia, so he won´t try to kill Itachi.
- And what´s the prize for me? Orochimaru asked. He was pretty convinced that Zetsu couldn´t come up with anything valuable enough for him. He would probably let the Akatsuki
member down.
What he didn´t know was that Zetsu already had won the prize. He exultanting held up a scroll which Orochimaru very well recognized as his own.
- If you help us, then you´ll get this back, the black side said, knowing that he would get what he wanted.
- How did you get that? the snake man almost yelled in astonishment. That scroll was the key of his immortality. If he lost that, he would probably only have about ten years to live.
- I found it, the white side said. And I don´t see why you would need this either, so if you don´t want it, I´ll see if Pein would like it.
Orochimaru knew he was defeated.
- Alright, I get it, he said. Give me the boy so I can fix this amnesia already.
The inner voice of Zetsu was exultantly singing. He had never thought he could get such a convenient person as Orochimaru ever would get so stiff and scared.
He handed over Sasuke to Orochimaru, making sure he still had the scroll out of reach for him. The snakeman did a couple of handsigns, then he put his hands on each side of the young Uchiha´s head. Blue chakra-like levitating substance came out of his ears, and into Orochimaru´s hands. When he was done, he gave Sasuke´s body back to the one that gave him it.
- I hope you kept your promise, he muttered.
- I´m not the person to break promises, the white side said.
- But I am! The black side replied roughly. He was the one who held the scroll, and just to make a hell for Orochimaru´s else so calm nerves, he took control over the other arm and snapped it´s fingers, making a small flame. He held the scroll just above this. Orochimaru´s eyes were near to jump out of his head. He started stamming in a very un-Orochimaru-like way:
- D-d-dont Zet-tsu, I c-c-can call m-my guards If t-that´s wh…
He was cut of by the black side´s evil laugh. He threw the scroll to Orochimaru, who caught it by a reflex.
- You can thank God I didn´t. This will be a moment to remember, right?
- Actually your right, the white side said. He smiled too, but not as evil as the other side. But it wasn´t a friendly smile either.
Zetsu left the room shortly after the black side had stopped laughing. Soon he had gotten the heck out of the entire Sound village, hoping that he wouldn´t have to return there anywhere soon.
- You´re late! You´ve never been late before! Explain yourself!
Poor Zetsu had lost his sence of time at the newly completed adventure of his. He hoped that Pein would approve the possible addition to the Akatsuki.
- I´m very sorry, sir Leader, for my late arrival, the white side said. The two sides had both agreed with each other, that the black side would let the white side do the talking, since he could calm people down the best of them. He continued:
- But I have an explanation and something I´m pretty sure you will approve. And this isn´t anything you can get anywhere, sir.
Pein´s eyebrows wrinkled.
- And what would that be? he asked, somewhat calmer than before.
- You know that Itachi has a little brother, right?
Pein nodded.
- And? he asked.
- And his brother has - like all other Uchihas - inherited the mighty Sharingan, right?
- Yes, the Leader said. He started tapping his foot, as if to hurry Zetsu to get to the point.
Zetsu got the hint. He held out Sasuke´s body to Pein. His eyes widened.
- And how did you manage to succeed with this, Zetsu?
Zetsu´s lips curved a little.
- I have my ways. My plan is to let Itachi train him until he gets the Mangekyo Sharingan.
- That would be a very clever thing to do, Pein said. But have you forgotten the fact that this boy would try to kill Itatchi whenever he gets the chance?
- Oh believe me, that isn´t a problem anymore, the white side said in such a soft voice that Pein almost could feel the silk running into his ears by every word his workman said. Zetsu held the tension for a couple of moments before he said:
- I have made sure that he has amnesia.
By now, the silk had gotten into Pein´s brain by the ears and started to massage his tense and stressed thinking organ. He felt more relaxed now, and he actually smiled a reflection of his mood.
- Then there´s one more Uchiha in the Akatsuki, he said. Well done, Zetsu. You can take a week off.
On Zetsu´s way out, Pein suddenly came to his own strict self, and added:
- If the Uchiha gets the Mangekyo within a month!