The Curse of Perfection

AN: This story is a challenge by Dracohalo117 and is my first attempt at a fan fiction. Basically when Orochimaru leaves Akatsuki he takes 'objects of great power' from each of the other members. He then sets out to make a new host body with all of their abilities and he chooses Naruto to be the base. At least 2 others have made fan-fics for this challenge and so it will be hard to be completely original but I will do my best.

Disclaimer: The premise for this story belongs to Dracohalo117, the characters and most of their personalities belong to Kishimoto, and a few plot ideas to Thantos and Aryaina.

Prologue: The Snake in the light of the Red-Moon

Orochimaru was a scientist. Always had been if he thought about it. He loved discovering new things, and enjoyed making them himself a great deal more. He had a dream, a goal, he would find a way to stop their ninja's from dying before their time, whether by improving their abilities or finding a way to bring them back from death.

But it wasn't until the deaths of his parents that he really turned to science as something more than a hobby. Even then he didn't make much progress in his dream until after the death of Tsunade's brother and lover. That was when he threw his morals out the window.

He re-discovered the Nidiame's Edo Tensei Jutsu and was well on his way to improving it so the revived people get their bodies fully back. He had found ways to improve a ninja's senses, strength and speed. He had even invented quite a few new Jutsu himself. But in the end he had fallen into the trap of science: 'forgetting the reason you destroyed your morality in the quest for answers'. And now he had been caught red-handed experimenting on his village's ninja and children.

"Orochimaru, how could you do this?" yelled Sarutobi Hiruzen, the previous Hokage in all his glory, carrying Enma in staff form, as he and his two ANBU team-mates stood blocking the exit of room.

"Kukuku, how could I do this? How could I not? This village has gone soft. Even in the wars we only won due to the efforts of the few exceptional ninja each time. The others are so weak they should at least become useful as test subjects, ne? Sarutobi Sensei," Chuckled Orochimaru, not even turning to face them, still working on the body in front of him.

"That is no justification for what you have done! It is madness!" Orochimaru set down his tools and slowly turned to face his old sensei, with a completely rational and serious expression on his face.

"Madness? I wonder, what is madness? Is it throwing away morals? Becoming senile with age, perhaps? Or maybe it is obsession for the supposedly unreachable, immortality and the perfection of one's body and mind?" The sandime and his ANBU tensed at the last sentence.

"Immortality? Don't tell me Orochimaru, you don't mean that Jutsu?" He said in growing horror.

"Yesss, And now that I have it, I have no need of this pathetic village." He hissed, before running to the door way in less than the blink of the eye amidst a massive gale of wind, killing the ANBU and smashing jars as he went, "And when I return the leaf will burn in the jaws of this snake."

xXx

A year later Orochimaru was leaving Umi no Kuni. He had, of course, kept all his notes on the important projects in a scroll that was contained within a snake, he had sealed inside of himself, so there was nothing of any real value left at his labs in Konoha for his old sensei to have found. Yes he could have taken that one Mokuton child that was still alive, but really if Sarutobi didn't find anything seemingly important he might realise that his student had tricked him into thinking he was caught by surprise.

The truth was, in fact the exact opposite. He had let himself be seen taking a few test subjects so that the new Hokage, Namikaze Minato, would try to arrest him. It had been the easiest way to leave the village while drawing attention away from the departing convoy that had successfully brought his research samples to his hidden lab in Kusa no Kuni.

He had been in Umi no Kuni because there were a few projects of minor importance he had got his flunky Amachi to continue at his base on Kikai Island. He had also wanted to see how Anko reacted to the prototype curse seal when he passed through the Jiro island compound, where she was currently stationed on border patrol. While he was surprised she had lived through the procedure what really stunned him was that her attitude toward him had done a complete 180 because of it. Needless to say she then became a security risk so he had to erase almost all her memories and leave her to be found by the ANBU that would undoubtedly come to find her when she didn't report in, while he left the country.

Pulling his mind back to the present he spotted three people wearing black cloaks with red clouds and straw hats with a small chime attached block his way. He could tell by how they moved that they were ninja, and extremely powerful ones at that. Stopping in front of them he tensed, wondering what these ninja could want with him.

"Orochimaru, of Konoha's Dentetsu no Sannin," stated the figure in the middle of the group in a deep basso voice. "We would like you to join our organisation, Akatsuki."

"Oh, you have me at a disadvantage. You know my name but I don't know yours, Akatsuki-San." He replied in a completely clam voice belying his curiosity as he stalled for the time to do a more in-depth threat assessment. The figure on the right was incredibly short and his cloak was filled with un-natural bulges which could signify some strange form of armour. The figure on the left was for all intents and purposes simply a moderately muscled man. His only noticeable feature at this point was his eyes. They were green and pupil-less with pink-red scalaires, this combination struck something in his memory but he couldn't remember what. The third figure was by far the most unassuming, with nothing that he could yet see to make him stand out, with the high collared cloak and the hat shadowing his face.

"My name is unimportant, for you shall either know me as Pein or, if you choose to join us, Leader-sama." replied Tendo-Pein, "As for our organisation, our aim is to bring peace to this war torn world through our strength."

Orochimaru was trying to keep his face blank but on the inside he was sweat-dropping at the seemingly childish dream, 'He seriously just said that? How could this guy get any followers at all with that recruitment speech.', "Oh, and just how strong is this strength you speak of."

"Perhaps you require a small demonstration. Sasori if you would." The moment he said this, the hunched figure on his right practically flew toward Orochimaru, his hat falling back from the wind to reveal a face mask and his black, braided hair, while his cloak snapped open to show that he was walking on all fours the entire time. Orochimaru instant recognised the carrier puppet from his experience fighting Suna in the war and leapt backwards, drawing out his Kusanagi as the Hiruku puppet smashed into where he was previously standing.

"So you're a puppet master from Sunagakure no sato then. In that case I'll simply have to draw you out." He claimed as he swung Kusanagi from a distance, extending it as he did and surprising Sasori by chopping off the puppets left arm when he used it to block the strike. Before he could press the attack a metal scorpion tail shot out of the puppet's back and forced him to jump back. Orochimaru was completely surprised as he only knew of one man who could alter puppets to such a degree "You are that Sasori. Akasuna no Sasori, that is a surprise." He stated, "Your whereabouts have been unknown for nearly three years, who would have thought you would fall in with some idealistic group." The other two watched on in silence.

"So you know of me then," He stated, "Good that means I won't have to take the time to introduce myself later, after all I hate waiting or making other people wait." He continued, while firing off multiple poisoned senbon from the stump of his left arm. Deflecting the strike in time to see Sasori charging in, jumped into the air and launched a spike-headed snake from his mouth at the exposed back of the puppet with a great deal of force, piercing it. His highly trained eyes picked out the figure escaping from the wreckage and made its way to stand by its two allies.

As Orochimaru took a look at the true form of Sasori his face remained blank while his mind was whirling. 'How could he look so young? He should be pushing 40, yet he barely looks 20. Does he have some form of immortality or youth jutsu? If so then I must find it a take it for myself.'

"Have you made a decision yet, Orochimaru?" questioned Pein, "Or do you need more of a demonstration?"

"I have yet to see anything impressive enough to convince me to follow you, Pein-san." Orochimaru deadpanned. While on the inside he was contemplating the best way to find the source of Sasori's youth.

"Very well, Kakazu show him the power of Akatsuki." The moment he had named Kakazu, Orochimaru's eyes widened. He had heard of the 'Taki no Bakemono', even the rumour that he had almost beaten the Shodai Hokage over 50 years ago.

But even as this thought was sinking in, Kakazu had leapt at him and completely decimated the ground where he had been but moments ago. He recognised the technique as Doton: Domu as he had been the recipient of many such attacks in the war from Iwagakure shinobi. Unfortunately for Kakazu he also knew a counter. He started forming hand signs for his jutsu and unleashed a focused Fuuton: Kazekiri which managed to cut both an arm and a leg from his opponent.

But as he watched Kakazu he was startled to see black threads shoot out of the stumps of his limbs and completely reattach both in a matter of seconds. 'How could this be possible? Is his body full of those threads? He was startled out of his thought at the hand seals Kakazu was preparing. Jumping up and to his left he avoided a Raiton: Gain only to have to Kawarimi with a Tsuchi-bunshin to escape the Fuuton: Atsugai aimed for where he had dodged. He was in slight shock at seeing two consecutive B-ranked jutsu of separate elements, let alone the fact that he had used 3 different elements through the fight so far. But he couldn't resist smirking as he saw that the cloaked nin had over looked his fallen clone, just as he activated the hidden explosive tags. The mud from his clone shot out and blinded Kakazu for just a moment, but that was all he'd need. He shot forward and stabbed Kakazu straight through the heart.

He was turning to gloat to Pein, when he felt his, supposedly dead opponent's chakra spike right before Kakazu intoned, "Katon: Zukokku" Orochimaru's eyes widened and he tried to dodge, but he was too close. So instead he prepared his Hifu-o-nagasu (shed-skin) technique and left his skin to take the blow. As he landed a distance from Kakazu, he saw the old nin laugh a little before he claimed, "Hahaha, how interesting. Not many can claim to have killed one of my hearts, and all those that did gave me theirs in return."

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes at that, 'One of his hearts? That implies he has more than one, most likely one for each element. It must have something to do with those threads of his; I'll have to obtain a sample somehow.' Suddenly his eyes widened again as another thought struck, 'Wait if he takes the heart of his enemies then that would mean they are essentially keeping him alive. It's another form of immortality! What is this organisation after when its members have these kinds of abilities?'

"Kakazu, that's enough. It seems he understands." announced the voice of Pein from his left, causing Orochimaru to turn toward him. As he looked over he saw that the man had finally removed his hat with closed eyes, revealing a strangely familiar face, though he couldn't quite place where he had met this man. He did notice the strange piercings on his face and ears, but aside from that and the bright orange hair, the man didn't seem to stand out. "Orochimaru, earlier you called us and idealistic group. And maybe you are right. But that doesn't mean we can't achieve our goals. First we will complete the liberation of Amegakure from the hands of Salamander Hanzo, and then we shall capture the 9 Biju. With their power nothing will stop us from bringing peace to this world."

Orochimaru felt himself be surprised yet again by this group. They had a plan to take down the man whom he, one of the strongest ninjas from Konoha, was made famous for just surviving against. And not only that, they also planned to take on the major villages in order to steal the sealed biju gifted by the shodai hokage at the end of the first war. He had to admit they had a point that if they could do these things, they would indeed be unstoppable.

By this point he was seriously considering the pros and cons of joining the vigilante group. On the plus side he would have revenge on Hanzo's pity, possible access to high levelled ninjas with abilities that are greatly interesting and a stable location to perform his experiments with no lack of test subjects from this civil war. However these ninja would be difficult to hide things from and his time would be taken up by their goals. Before he could fully decide something happened that made his mind up instantly.

Pein opened his eyes.

Orochimaru stared for a few seconds in open disbelief and recognition, before lowering his head and beginning to chuckle slightly. 'Very clever, Pein-san. First you lull me in with a poor recruitment speech, and then display an enemy I am very familiar with from my experiences fighting Suna. Then an enemy I have always respected in history, followed by a declaration to give me more reason to join you. But you save the clincher for last, knowing I have done a great deal of research on Doujutsu, you throw the Rinnegan into the mix. There's no way I can let this opportunity pass me by.'

"I will join you."

XxX

AN: and that's the prologue of 'The Curse of Perfection' where Orochimaru leaves the leaf and meets Akatsuki. The next chapter will have Orochimaru meet the other, current members and begin to come up with a plan to become the greatest ninja in history. The author Jaelixa has recently also posted a version of this challenge so I will try not to overlap them with plot twists that may be similar.

Please Review. I won't bite.