He sprinted through the trees, each step quick and focused. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead and rolled behind his glasses, but it wasn't from exhaustion, even though he'd had to run a long way to come here. No, this was fear being channeled straight into energy, and though his heart pounded, his mind was clear.

He stopped on a particularly large branch to rest, propping his scaled white arm on the trunk of the tree. The moon shone through the leaves onto his long, silvery hair, pale skin, and mismatched eyes. Those eyes were filled with many emotions – fear, disgust, and most of all, anger. Anger at himself for being such a fool. Anger at his own weakness. Overriding all of these, of course, was anger for the one he'd been stupid enough to try to beat.

Of course I can overcome his power. He's only one of the three most powerful shinobi in the world, the cruelest man to ever exist, and a greedy bastard to boot. Sure, Kabuto, you can beat him, he's only Orochimaru!

His hand (his own hand) clenched into a fist as he mentally cursed himself. At the time, transplanting what remained of Orochimaru's body into his own made sense. He wanted to be strong on his own now that he had the chance, and what better way than to force himself into constant combat with the man he'd served for more than four years of his life? It was the ultimate act of insubordination...but clearly, not the smartest one. It had been a struggle to keep the Sannin from resurfacing, day in and day out, but up until now, Kabuto had been successful. He'd managed to keep his own will as the dominant one while still learning to utilize what he had of his former master's. But all that had changed on the day he learned about the fight between Sasuke and Itachi.

When Kabuto heard that Orochimaru had been killed at last, he was happy. Finally, he could move on without any more worry of the snake lord returning. But as his jubilation faded, a new emotion had surged up all of a sudden – rage. Rage that was not his own…rage that overpowered his own wish for freedom and smothered his inner self with something else…someone else…

Of course the Hyuuga girl's Byakugan scan of him had been right. Orochimaru was taking over his body slowly each day. He'd been foolish enough to think that he could overcome the Sannin's will eventually, but now that he was trapped in a dream-realm and the curse seals were gone from both people he'd marked, his only hope of escape into the living world was none other than Kabuto Yakushi. He had been doing it almost imperceptibly, but ever so slowly, his influence had grown, to the point where the bespectacled medic-nin's emotions weren't even his own anymore. Well, that sure as hell wasn't going to last, which was why Kabuto had come here. He wanted to make sure no-one was watching him, or tried to stop him at the last minute.

He landed in a clearing and gathered himself for what he was about to do. He could, of course, just fall out of a tree and break his neck, but he didn't know whether that would kill both of them, or just him, and he didn't want to take the risk. But he had studied the jutsu Orochimaru said the Mitarashi girl, his former pupil, tried to use on him once. Kabuto wasn't quite sure how she had learned it without dying herself, but he had memorized the scrolls and knew that it only had to work once for him to be free.

Kabuto removed his cloak, and laced the fingers of his own hand with those of his implanted arm, forming the seal on either side.

"I'm sorry, Orochimaru-sama," the gray-haired shinobi said, looking more relieved than regretful, "but you and I are going to die here, together." So saying, he took a breath and thought as hard he could.

Ninpo! Soujasosai no J-

At that moment, a dark chuckle echoed around him. His eyes flew open. It couldn't be him. He looked around, but saw no-one. Had he been imagining things…or simply not heard the voice with his ears?

As if to answer his question, he then heard an all-too-familiar, raspy, hissing voice…that was slithering out of his own throat, through his unwillingly smirking lips.

"Kabuto…Are you trying to commit suicide?"