Dry, dark blood stained the ground leading up to the cave, limbs and bodies covered with dozens of small stab wounds in little pairings were scattered around the wide entrance of the cave and throughout its opening chamber. Ice, water, ashes, and rock plastered the walls and roof of its tunnels or covered the floor which was also littered with Kunai, Shurikins and Blades.
A body crawled out of the tunnel, mere luck and will power were the only reason this Shinobi still had life left in him and he knew it. He unravelled a small scroll and felt around for his slender, wooden-handled brush which was the last ninja tool he had left in his possession. He had no ink left but was determined to send this message. He reached up slowly and unravelled his headband and removed the fractured metal forehead protector pieces from it. He took the sharpest looking piece and while biting hard down on the cloth from the headband so as to not reveal his position to the enemy he forced the shard of metal to add a new, bleeding cut to his body.
Each stroke of the brush sent bursts of pain throughout his body and as he drew nearer to death his body gave up on him more and more and begged for the numb embrace of death. With his last breath he uttered
"Ninja art: super beast scroll." Then he was silent. The jutsu sent the words on the page crawling and squirming together where they formed a red and inky-looking rat that sniffed the air suspiciously then scurried off to the nearby Hidden Leaf village.
A solitary shadow stretched across the back wall of the cave. Its caster looked un amused as a sleek, white snake coiled it's way around his slender fingers. His eyes shone with an unforgiving glower as he remembered bitterly that he was stuck in this weak body for only a few more days when he could finally claim his rightful host.
"If Sssssssasuke thinks he can avoid me and deny me his body then this time I will sssimply have to take it" His fingers burst into angry snakes that coiled themselves together into a throbbing, venomous fist as he spat out the last two words.
He had remained still and inactive for far too long now.
The Snake of the Sound was about to strike.
