A/N: Alright! Chapter two, on its way!! Oh, and there are going to be A LOT of POV changes in this chapter so I'm hoping you won't get too confused with it…
And yeah, I changed the rating, mostly due to some if the things I say in here, heheh…
Disclaimer: In the first chapter
Under his Power
Chapter Two
-Read A/N at the bottom-
--- The Three Stranger's POV---
Tsunade walked silently beside Jiraiya through their old village. She was having a really weird day. She knew this because:
1. She actually won at gambling
2. Some weird silver haired dude comes with Jiraiya and says that Orochimaru wants to see them…weird
3. And third, there were fucking sound ninja all over Konoha.
Things were not going right. Shizune hurried behind her with a worried look in her eyes. She could understand how she felt, but it was best not to say anything at the moment.
They gathered some strange looks when they first entered Konoha's gates, but they simmered down when they entered the woods. Now the two sannin and apprentice were walking over a bridge. 'Oh, great. More weirdos,' she thought, taking notice of two figures sitting atop the bridges railing. 'I swear if they look at me funny I'll pound their heads in…' when they walked by she found out that they were leaf ninja. They didn't really look at her weirdly; they just glanced up at the three travelers passing by. The look she saw in their eyes, there were so many emotions there at once. The one she did catch though, was desperation. Something was definitely not right. In Konoha, genin didn't used to go around with looks of desperation in their eyes. They were usually just so young and carefree. What was going on?
They soon passed the boy and girl at the bridge and came in view of the Hokage Tower. Or, at least what used to be the Hokage's Tower… Now there were iron gates surrounding the wooden building. All the windows were enforced with bars except the window that used to sit behind the hokage's office. That one was spared its freedom.
The traveling sannin walked up to the place where the old, wide, welcoming doors used to be. Now all that stood was a pair of menacing, looming, iron doors with sound ninja guarding them. "What is your business here?" demanded one of them.
"We have come on Orochimaru's request." Answered Jiraiya back in a firm tone, "it would not be wise to turn us away." The man seemed to believe his story, or maybe he felt threatened by the stranger's hard eyes, but either way he let them enter the gates. They started in and saw the silver-haired man who had summoned them, Kabuto.
"hello, again." He said pleasantly. "I'm sorry, but Shizune-san will have to wait outside. What you are going to hear is only for your ears." Shizune looked indignant but Tsunade stopped her from retorting, "you should best do what you are told. Remember, we are in Orochimaru's turf now." Shizune walked back out the double doors wanting to wipe that stupid silver haired guy's smirk right off his face. The remaining three kept on.
They were lead to the old office, but now it was darkly lit, and had a big chair in the back of the room. The windows behind the chair had blood red drapes over them, so as not to let in any natural light. In the chair, sat Orochimaru in full arrogance. While Tsunade and Jiraiya walked up to him, Kabuto stayed by the door, which was now shut. Tsunade felt trapped, she didn't like this.
Orochimaru stood up and walked over to his old teammates, arms hanging limply, "Jiraiya, Tsunade, you may not believe me, but it is very good to see you both again."
From their looks, they didn't believe him.
"You are telling us, the friends that you left behind all those years ago for power, that you are glad to see us again? That is unbelievable."
"Jiraiya, must you always contradict me? The truth is, it isn't as easy to run the fire country as I thought. There are always the little outbursts, those can be taken care of quickly, but I need better partners, people that I can trust. You."
The two seemed shocked. "I don't believe you." Said Tsunade, "you have never been one to share the power. You just want us to help you for your own hidden agenda."
He smiled a sadistic smile, "believe it or not, but running Konoha has changed me little," he ignored Jiraiya's snort and continued, "It is harder that running the sound, where you can let a group of people kill an entire town and it will go without punishment. The wealthy need to be satisfied, the genin need to stay in check, and the academy students must be taught. It isn't an easy job."
"Then why did you take it?" asked Jiraiya in a stony voice.
"The dream I had when I was young never left I suppose."
No one talked for awhile. Orochimaru was the first to break the silence. "It would be easier for me, and better, if I had the two people who I know I can trust the most by my side. What I am asking you is, will you two forgive me for my past actions and help me run the Fire Country; as my advisors?" Tsunade looked over to Jiraiya, who was looking back.
"Orochimaru, you have always been good at influencing people. We will help you." He said, finishing with a big sigh.
"I would shake but…" he glanced down to his lifeless arms. Jiraiya just gave him a curt nod. "We understand, don't worry about it." Then something happened that no one ever thought would happen ever again. Orochimaru smiled. A real, honest smile. For the fifth time that day, Tsunade and Jiraiya were stunned. If Tsunade wasn't convinced that something was terribly wrong before, now she was sure. But what if he really has changed, said a tiny voice in the back of her mind. What if we really have the old Orochimaru back? Is it really that horrible?
------------Sasuke's POV------------------
Sasuke struggled all the way through his supposed kidnapping. What was happening? Why were sound nin coming and dragging him off to who knows where? He could only think of one reason: Orochimaru had become impatient.
A few minutes later he figured that he was correct for the one reason of him being dragged into the Hokage Tower. He had given up on struggling in the Iron Grip of the Two ninja who were restraining him; and instead he was thinking up a plan of escape. The only way I can think of to get out of this whole mess, is to get rid of my body; to destroy myself. But I couldn't do that to Naruto and Sakura. But, if it will save them, then I have no choice. His odds were looking grim. Orochimaru, apparently, didn't like waiting for his new body. But if he didn't have a body to wait for, he might move on. On his way into the massive gates he glanced up with sullen eyes at the same woman who had just walked past he and sakura a few minutes ago, the one with the pig. She looked very indignant. But what had happened to her companions? Were they in league with Orochimaru? Or were they just captive under his power like the rest of them…?
They were now inside the new Hokage Tower, The strange woman left behind. Sasuke was pulled through the dark hallways with their lack of light and people. He didn't care about that though; he just kept his eyes on the ground. They weren't very hopeful. He had no reason to be.
They went inside the doors a few steps and thrust sasuke to the ground then walked back out the door and bolted it shut. Sasuke looked up and saw the other two strangers who had walked by him and the man who could fill him with so much hate: Orochimaru. He stood up from his kneeling position on the floor.
"I'm so glad that you could join us, sasuke-kun."
Sasuke had had enough time to figure out a plan, even if it wasn't the best for him. He suddenly pulled out a kunai and put it to his neck, "I'm afraid that I won't be staying long."
"ku ku ku, you never cease to entertain me, sasuke-kun. But I'm afraid that won't do much if you were wishing to save your friends. I happen to have a very skilled medic in my presence and a little spilled blood will not stop me from taking over your body."
Sasuke faltered for a moment, but then quickly recovered. He slowly lifted the kunai to point at his eyes. "But the only reason you want my body if for the sharingan, right? If that is gone, you have no use for me."
The white haired man interrupted, "Orochimaru, are you really still after immortality?"
"Why yes, Jiraiya. And it just so happens that this young boy is to be my next vessel, right sasuke?" all Orochimaru got in return was narrowed eyes, and a slight growl.
"But as you can see," Orochimaru said, talking to his companions, "he can be quite difficult. Please take no offence if I try to persuade him."
"How would we take offence," asked the white haired man cautiously.
Orochimaru's eyes glinted. He gave no answer.
He turned back to sasuke, "I have become aware that the people you care most about would be your two teammates, Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura. You like them safe don't you? What would you do if I told you that your little blonde friend was being attacked right now by some of my men?"
Sasuke didn't lower his kunai or show any fear, instead, he just smirked. "Naruto is strong, believe it or not. He has already saved my life at least two times now. Your men won't be able to kill him."
"But then what about your other companion?"
"She isn't weak either. We can all take care of ourselves."
Right at that moment their was a loud BANG and the whole building shook. What the hell is going on out there? Thought sasuke.
"I can see that you are lying. You want to believe in her but you know that she has always been the weakest. How could such a weak little girl protect herself against my men?"
Sasuke paled a bit, "She is stubborn, she won't die until she wants to."
"you may say that, but you know that she won't last long in the world that I have created. In fact, her stubbornness may be her downfall."
right at that moment the giant, bolted, doors flew open to reveal a furious sakura.
---------------Sakura's POV---------------
Those unknown ninja were not that efficient. When they attempted to knock out sakura, all that happened was she got a mouthful of dirt. Unfortunately, those shinobi were fast and by the time she got up, sasuke was no where to be seen.
She swore under her breath, where could he have been dragged off to? A pale, snake-like face formed in her mind immediately. She was frozen with horror. What had happened to him? What if…no! She was not going to return to the same old sakura that she used to be. She had promised herself. No more worries, just action! With her mind set she sprinted towards the Hokage Tower.
---A moment later
She was standing in front of the huge gates. The ninja at the surrounding gates had tolerated her and let her through, but they knew she wouldn't be able to get any further, she could hear their laughs.
"can I help you, miss," asked a woman standing by the door.
Something clicked in sakura's memory, "Weren't you with the strangely dressed people who walked by me and sasuke?"
The woman nodded, "My name is Shizune."
"Well, sorry Shizune, but I am in a hurry so I will have to talk to you later." Sakura started to move but Shizune held her up, "If that raven-haired boy that was being dragged by those sound nin is sasuke, you might be too late."
Sakura paled an thought how she knew about sasuke, but her gaze was determined. "I can only try anymore."
"but how will you get in?"
A sudden thought occurred to her. "Like I said, I can only try, and this will be my first attempt of smashing my way through an Iron Door."
She gathered all her chakra in her fist, jumped into the air, and slammed down on the gates. There was a loud crash and they caved in. The sound shinobi who were keeping watch ceased their laughing. "Better run." Sakura sprinted into the darkness, leaving a stunned Shizune.
Sigh we have finally come to the point where everyone is!
Sakura rushed into the room, much to sasuke's dismay, only to be caught and held by another sound shinobi (a/n: these guys are starting to get on my nerves…) much to sasuke's dismay…again.
"Sakura!" He shouted out, dropping his kunai and running to her. The ninja just pulled her hands tighter behind her back. "get your hands off her you bastard!" the man smirked and held on tighter.
"you see, sasuke. Your teammates are nothing but hindrances. It would just be best for you to come to me so I can train you. You would be treated like royalty once again. Don't you want to be strong enough to defeat Itachi?" sasuke's hand tightened his hand to a fist. Orochimaru took this the wrong way. "That's right. I'm sorry to say that you are not quite right yet for me to steal your body; I will have to wait a couple years. But in that time I will be able train you, you will be strong enough to achieve your greatest wish."
Orochimaru had taken sasuke's reactions the wrong way. The real reason sasuke had tightened his fist was because he could feel a certain emotion flowing off of sakura: anger.
"calm down," he whispered. "remember your promise."
"I won't forget, I promised that I wouldn't go after the man who killed my mother. He isn't that man."
"sakura, do you want to be killed?"
"are you going to take his offer?"
Sasuke was taken aback by her question, "why would I take an offer that I don't need. I'm not going after Itachi. I'm not going to leave you." That seemed to comfort her more.
(just so you know that whole conversation went on while Oro was talking.)
"then lets just leave." Sakura said a little too loud.
"ku ku ku, you do realize that to leave this place you must go through maze like hallways, multiple genjutsus, my sound troops, the iron gate, and not to mention Kabuto? Your chances of survival are very slim."
Sakura smirked, "I mean no offence, Hokage-sama," she spat with all the venom in her heart, "but I already found a way through the hallways, dispelled the genjutsu, knocked out your shinobi, and smashed the Iron Gate through. You have some repairs to do, by the way." The two teammates turned to walk out the door. "you know," started Orochimaru, "she reminds me of you when we were young, Tsunade. She has your spirit." Tsunade perked up. "what are you implying?" she asked cautiously. "only that when I am training sasuke, you might get bored. You might want a new student."
Sasuke immediately took sakura by the arm and raced out the door, shutting it on the way out. "I seems your apprentice didn't like that idea much, Orochimaru."
"Throughout our whole conversation he wasn't acting like himself. I wonder what has gotten in to him."
"It seems," said Tsunade, "that he has found his heart. Your take over hasn't helped your plans of immortality."
"But these were my plans. I never intended for sasuke to become my new body when he was so young. It would be better when he is older and more experienced. Besides, I already changed into a new body for my fight with sensei; I'll have to wait three more years before I can change again."
"And another thing," inquired Tsunade, "were you really serious about me training that girl? I thought you wanted to rule the fire, not breed ninja that will be your downfall."
"ku ku ku, Do not worry about the smaller things. If all goes right then the next generation will be on my side, not against it."
"will you ever release the jounins," asked Jiraiya, breaking in.
"If they behave."
"you are betting on a lot of 'ifs' old friend. Have you ever considered that the Akatsuki will intervene?"
"The Akatsuki is only after the Kyuubi vessel. And I really don't want to give it up, so you will continue your training with him."
"One more question."
"you are quite curious today, Tsunade."
She ignored him and went on, "How are you going to get all three of the genin to agree to us as their senseis? Most likely, they won't like the idea."
He smiled a malicious smile, "they will have to comply if they want Kakashi to stay alive. And if that doesn't work, they have many friends."
"we can't just go around and kill innocent people, Orochimaru."
"Don't worry, Jiraiya. I won't kill them unless they give me reason to. I can however make life on them more difficult."
"Than it already is?"
Orochimaru didn't reply, he just turned and walked out the side door.
When he was safely out of earshot Jiraiya turned too Tsunade, "Remember," he said soothingly, "We are doing this for Konoha's sake. We only have to act, so don't take anything that happens as your fault."
Tsunade just crossed her arms worriedly and nodded a silent yes.
------------Finally with naruto!!---------------
Naruto and Gaara were walking around Konoha that day. They had ended up at the academy, right as it was letting out. Naruto say a distinct difference, though, from when he attended the academy and now. The children weren't running out in joy at the end of a long school day. Instead they slowly trudged out with looks of worry in every pair of eyes. Has the suffering really spread so far as to the academy? Naruto pondered to himself in wonder.
"You look troubled."
Naruto jumped. "Ehh, sorry Gaara. It's just," he faltered for a moment, "The academy has changed so much since I was here, and that was only a little more than a year ago."
"I guess that no one ever hoped to be safe anywhere when Orochimaru rules, even at the academy."
Naruto let out a sad sigh, "I suppose you're right. Thanks Gaara." Gaara looked quizzically towards his friend, "What are you thanking me for?" Naruto smiled to him, "For being here to talk to me."
The two started to leave the academy with one last look, but were interrupted.
"Nii-san!!"
Naruto looked up abruptly from his fixed stare on the ground. He knew those three, cheerful voices. He turned to look where the noise was coming from, "Konohamaru! Udon! Moegi!"
The three ran up and pounced onto Naruto. "Nii-san!" cried Konohamaru, "We were worried! We didn't see since the attack and didn't know if you were still alive!"
"Hey, don't worry," the blonde said soothingly. "You know I won't die until we have our final fight."
"Then I won't fight you!"
"Konohamaru…"
"I don't want you to go away like gramps or Iruka-sensei!!"
The three started to cry on his pant legs. He looked at them with cerulean eyes full of sorrow. "Konohamaru, Moegi, Udon, I am never going to leave this place. Not as long as I still have the will to fight. As long as I know we all still have the will of fire in our hearts, no one will ever be able to beat me. No, not even if no one has any will left. I will always fight for this village."
The three cried harder in to his pants, "but we don't want you to get hurt!" wailed Moegi.
"Hey," naruto said in a lighter tone, "I'm starting to get the Idea that you all think I'm weak! What kind of way is that to think of your boss?"
Their crying slowed, "Now, I want you all to go and have fun, alright? Just try and not to get into trouble." They stood up straight in front of him but did not budge. "That's an order!" This got them to hustle. "Yes, Boss!" they all ran off and started a game of tag, with seemingly happy faces.
"Those were pretty words, did you really mean them?"
Naruto looked over to his red haired companion,
"Every word."
Gaara gave one of his very rare smiles. Even if it was a small one, it was still there. "Then you will become a great Hokage one day."
Naruto gave a grim smile, "First I'll have to get rid of the snake bastard…"
Gaara's smile disappeared, "then do you want to go train?" Naruto looked to his friend, "Won't your sand get in the way?"
Gaara smirked, "It's not really impenetrable. You jut have to be fast enough. You saw the battle with Lee."
Naruto smiled, "I'll take you up on that offer. But you're going to have to commit. This isn't going to happen in a day."
He shrugged, "It's not like I have anything else to do."
"then let's GOOO!!!" he took Gaara by the arm and an ecstatic naruto and a surprised gaara ran off into the woods. Well, more like naruto dragged Gaara into the woods, but ya get the point.
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To Be Continued…
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A/N: Well…that chapter sucked… I really didn't like Sasuke's POV and the only reason I put the naruto and Gaara thing at the end was to add naruto in because he's the main character and I can leave our favorite blonde out! (not to mention his hot red-headed friend) so I added the three squirts in with the two to make it a package deal!! Don't worry, Iruka's not dead, he was just taken away with the jounins. And if anything is confusing now, don't worry. It'll be explained in later chapters. Please REAVIEW!!!!
--Sn1ck3rd00dl3
