"I am alone", he thought. Ever since he'd left Konoha, things had taken a turn for the worse.
When he left, Sasuke would have never thought that he'd be broken the way he was now. Orochimaru broke him. Tore him apart from the inside, almost made him as rotten as Orochimaru was himself. Driven by hatred he'd willingly endure all the pain it took to become powerful enough to take down Itachi, have sweet revenge on him. Even if it meant becoming that snake guy's vessel.
The boy had been with Orochimaru for a while now and now he knew how wrong he'd been complaining about Konoha being hard on him. But it was too late now, no turning back. He now understood pain, loneliness and hatred much better than he'd ever done, even though he'd thought he knew them all in Konoha already. Sasuke had become Orochimaru's favorite toy to play with. The man found way too much pleasure in turning Sasuke's training into a sadistic scenario, almost a ritual by now.
Sasuke's body ached but he was used to the feeling by now. Somehow it never went away amymore. In the beginning he'd often been unable to move for days after training, but now the boy was used to training against the pain, not ignoring it, but rather finding comfort in it. The worse he hurt the more he felt alive and damn, did he need to feel alive. He'd also started to be fascinated by the way his blood ran down his body when he got injured. He even found beauty in it, motivating him to fight way beyond his limits.
Orochimaru enjoyed how the young Uchiha fought without any fear of death. He loved hurting him just to make him more eager to fight. Their relationship had become way past abusive, there were just no words to describe it, but if you had to find one, "sick" would probably do. One had to be damaged far beyond repair to become like Sasuke had. And even Orochimaru knew the most dangerous people were those, who had nothing to lose.
"Time for training."
Kabuto came to fetch Sasuke from his room.
Was he happy about it? He didn't even know anymore. He probably just didn't care.
Today's opponent would be some shinobi he didn't know too well, but was one of the stronger ones around Orochimaru.
"Not a match to me", the boy hissed at Orochimaru who'd come to watch, as always.
"Do you want to bore me to death?", he provoked. No reaction though.
"You may fight", Orochimaru ordered.
Without hesitation the other Shinobi attacked Sasuke, who'd just wait mockingly. He was fine, so there was no need to fight yet, it lacked thrill. Naburo, the other Shinobi hit him hard. In his face, tearing his lip as well as in his stomach, making him cough. Not that it bothered him too much though. But there it was, the taste of iron on his tongue. His eyes widened manically. "There we go", he grinned as Naburo aimed at him again. This time Sasuke was faster. Naburo's attack hit the ground where Sasuke had been standing, giving the latter the opportunity to hit Naburo's back hard with his Chidori. He escaped the attack fast enough to survive it, but he was badly injured, bleeding heavily.
"Enough!", he shouted in order to end the training fight, but Sasuke had just started. There was no way of stopping him now, Orochimaru loved that. It made him proud of the monster his torture had created. He'd shaped Sasuke so perfectly. He'd turned out so beautifully murderous and cold, a true killer.
Orochimaru could spare that one Shinobi, he didn't have to deny Sasuke his fun, not that that had even been a possibility to begin with. Even he didn't want to have to get in the way of someone who enjoyed inflicting pain on others so much that he'd become completely unaware of his own vulnerability in the process.
Naburo didn't stand a chance against the killer. His blood already all over the place, he managed to dodge two of Sasuke's attacks. That was just Sasuke's thing though, making them run, giving them the illusion of a chance, before taking them apart like he'd been on the inside. Bit by agonizing bit.
Skin ripping under his grip, bones breaking from his hits, the pain and desparation in his prey's eyes before life fled them - he loved it.
His knuckles were bloody from hitting the poor lifeless body, they even might have been broken from hitting bone so much. It gave him such satisfaction, he didn't stop hitting Naburo's face for about ten ninutes, before Orochimaru himself interfered. He grabbed Sasuke by the shoulder, squeezing it with full force in order to make him snap out of his bloodlust.
A distant pain reached Sasuke's thoughts, reminding him it was time to stop. Orochimaru always did that when he wouldn't stop by himself, which he rarely did. But the man had the ability to get him under his control again.
"Fucking-!", Karin exclaimed, not even knowing what to say at the sight exactly. She felt Sasuke became more and more vicious, mutilating his victims more every time. Karin couldn't understand how Orochimaru could allow this. It was disgusting and Sasuke was only turning into a disgusting human being as well as Orochimaru was. Karin hated the man for it.