Chapter 3: Hidden Knowledge

Tak and Leo were waiting with extreme stillness outside the door.

They were feeling rather uncomfortable as it were already, and both were suffering from severe headaches, though they had yet to admit it out loud. Tak could feel his head splitting open, and in his cloud of pain he couldn't do anything at all. A short while ago, when out of boredom he had tried to move his arm so he could flex his fingers, the pain had intensified tenfold, causing him to almost pass out.

So right now, he was struck motionless, trying to breathe, but without moving his chest too much.

On the other side of the door, Leo was suffering from a slightly different situation. Like Tak, he was experiencing one of the most agonizing headaches ever, but unlike Tak, he realized he could still think through the pain. Every single inch of his body was warning him that they shouldn't have come here.

He did know of course, that Uchiha-sama was residing in the room, and that was the main problem. As a rule, Leo tried not to bother himself with thoughts of Uchiha-sama, because he was scary, he was terrifying, he was monstrous and he was inhuman. It was in the way he stood and walked, and especially the way he spoke, how the quietness of his voice could silence an entire room. Leo had never seen Uchiha-sama fight before, but just glancing at his profile from afar seemed to strike a chord of fear within his bones. He couldn't find the words to explain it, except that he never dared to look at the man for long, for fear that those dreadful eyes would stare straight at him.

He just knew that the day they did, it would signal that his life at an end.

Kakashi left the room, mask in place and brow furrowed. He was deep in thought, and was actually in the process of stalking off when he realized something was wrong. The unmistakable figures of Tak and Leo were not in his immediate vicinity, as Kakashi was used to. Looking about for his two idiotic bodyguards, he found them lying on the floor, both deeply unconscious.

"Shit."

After standing stock still for a few seconds, he turned quickly and retraced his steps, re-entering the room he had just left. It didn't occur to him that he had to knock. Sasuke had overdone things this time, and Kakashi swore he'd put a stop to it when he visited him tonight. It seemed he needed more direct instructions.

"Sasuke, would you please do something about that ferocious killing intent of yours?"

Kakashi had already finished his sentence when he realized he was speaking to an empty room. Sasuke was gone. The room felt chilly. Oddly, the window was also fully closed. It was only then he realized, rather belatedly, that the unwholesome aura which had been present only moments before had vanished completely from the place. He could not detect any sign of the young man he'd spoken to just minutes before.

Kakashi let out a sigh.

The night breeze slapped coolly against his skin as he took to the black night skies. His robes were rippled in the gusts of wind as he shot through the air. Sasuke felt free, as free as a stray leaf possibly could feel, caught in a wandering breeze on a bright summer's day. His midnight trips often left him feeling alive again. After cooping himself up in his stuffy room in the palace for endless days and weeks, this jaunt was like a cool drink of water in the middle of a scorching desert.

It wasn't like Sasuke couldn't go out any time he wanted, obviously. He was the Prince of his empire, there wasn't anywhere in the world he couldn't visit as he pleased. It was just – he didn't like to leave things running all by themselves without him around to make sure they were going right.

He'd given himself some time to think things over, let Suigetsu handle the affairs of his empire for awhile, but ultimately, he had still been there. Now that Sasuke's head was clearer in the wake of his decision, he felt really stupid. The answer had been right in front of him all this while. It had been his goal, hadn't it? World domination?

So he'd been simply idiotic to mull things over for so long.

Sasuke had already begun to form a plan of sorts in his head, on how he was going to finish things up. He'd been fantasizing about world domination for years. Imagine, the day when he would finally rule over the entire world. It was a grand thought. As such, he wanted to give the people a Last Battle, a battle with a magnitude like no other, one that would go down in history for being the bloodiest, the cruelest, the goriest. In other words, one that was won with huge machines, lots of gunpowder, and earth-shattering, mind-blowing jutsus would be just about perfect.

And so fitting.

And that was why he was going to pay a visit to a certain someone tonight. Or to be precise, two certain someones. The only ones who knew the secret behind his machines. Sasuke smirked, the features of his face twisting in anticipation.

Many thought he'd been the genius behind his wonderful inventions, but they'd thought wrong. Someone else, someone currently in Sasuke's enslavement, had created the wonderful technology.

Orochimaru.

Sasuke's lip curled as he thought of that man. Enslavement was a small price to pay after what he had made Sasuke go through during his teenage years, when he'd been young and vulnerable. He'd been so obedient, too. God. Sasuke would never forget the nights he woke up to Orochimaru's snake features,those memories were enough to cause nightmares forever.

Yes, enslavement was definitely a small price to pay after Sasuke realized he'd surpassed his original sensei in terms of taijutsu, ninjutsu and genjutsu. He'd been sorely tempted to kill the bastard right in his own personal chamber in his secret underground liar, but he realized Orochimaru's value. His importance to Sasuke's utlimate scheme.

Among the snake's countless experimental labs which imprisoned humans as lab rats, there were some devoted entirely to the invention of steel machinery and various contraptions.

Sasuke knew he'd hit a gold mine when he stumbled upon one one day. It was perfect, exactly what he was looking for, to take over the world. So Orochimaru had lived, together with his accomplice, Kabuto. The two were responsible for all the weaponry Sasuke's army was using. Or at least, mostly responsible. Sasuke was a genius with the Sharingan, all they did, in the main, was transfer their ideas to him, and he would have his own men re-create what he'd learned.

But the two had to be locked up, for obvious reasons. As far as the rest of the world knew, they were both dead, killed by the Prince himself years ago. Sasuke had to give them a place to live out of the public eye, big enought to store anything they would need for experimentation purposes.

Their abode was an underground fortress. No one except Sasuke went to and fro regularly above and below ground to visit them. It was also built in the last place any one would expect.

The entire capital of the Northern Empire was man-made.

But there was one place Sasuke had decided to preserve in its original form, one which still carried the mark of pure, unsullied nature. Nature was fast disappearing in his growing empire. And Sasuke didn't want to forget it. Part of his brain that told him that he'd grown up and loved a small village called The Leaf, where nature flowed in abundance.

And so, he had preserved the Old Forest. The name was self explanatory, really. Sasuke had decided to keep one of Konoha's old forests on a whim. His ex-country had been a barren wilderness when his army reached it, a sad and broken shell of what it once was. The beauty of its landscape had been marred by dead bodies and bloodied soil.

And out of the desolate, small number forests that remained, Sasuke chose to keep the largest one. He had machines monitoring the growth of the forest, and others to take care of its needs like soil, fertilizer, sunlight, rain, and miscellaneous stuff. And that was where Orochimaru and Kabuto came in. The both of them kept the forest going as they continued with their projects.

Sasuke knew they would be happy to see him now, even if they didn't show it. Loneliness did that to most people.

He arrived at place, and stepped lightly onto the pavement before the entrance to the Old Forest. The plot of living land was enclosed by a tall and durable glass box, spanning its entire length, breath and height. A greenhouse of immense proportions, covering the entire forest. The Prince did not intend to let the wilderness spread to his precious steel empire.

Sasuke waited. An invisible square meter around him was a chakra sensor. It would scan his chakra, and after determining Sasuke to be who he was, Kabuto would open up a glass door in the greenhouse to admit him.

Moments later, Kabuto's voice floated from the microscopic speakers near Sasuke's feet, sounding pleased. "Ah, Sasuke-sama. Welcome back."

"Don't keep me waiting." Sasuke warned.

"Of course not. I am just running a thorough check to ensure you are not some random Sasuke-wannabe kage bunshin."

Sasuke's forehead creased. Kabuto was as insolent as ever, even if he was in Sasuke's enslavement. Like he didn't already know that kage bunshins of Sasuke were against the law. Perhaps it was time to reinforce the jutsu? It wouldn't do for Sasuke to walk straight into an ambush prepared by the two ex-sound nin. He may have been the strongest ninja to ever walk the earth, but fighting Orochimaru and Kabuto would create problems he would rather avoid.

"Scan completed. You are indeed who you say you are. You may enter." Kabuto said smugly.

"I think you should remember that this place belongs to me, and that I have the power to make you very, very miserable if you continue to disrespect me," Sasuke said to the tiny speaker, which fell silent. Kabuto was sulking, but Sasuke wouldn't lose any sleep over that.

He stepped into the glass building, the door sliding noiselessly into place behind him. A blast of humid air and the deafening sound of crickets greeted him. Sasuke spent a few seconds enjoying the fresh air the forest provided, then leaped to the nearest tree branch, using the age-old method of moving through the forest. Focusing chakra to the feet and jumping from tree to tree. Sasuke missed doing this. The wind in his ears and the trees whirring past, it was the very essence of the ninja spirit.

Several minutes later, Sasuke was there.

Right in the heart of the forest was an ancient tree, a tree that had outlived the making of Konoha by centuries. Sasuke stood before it, staring at the tree in concealed awe. He did this all the time. It was justified awe. The tree was enormous; its trunk was at least ten meters in diameter and looked like it actually consisted of several trunks all twisted together. It's roots began a mile off. The tree was the life force of the Old Forest.

It also was the entrance to the underground fortress. Sasuke walked up to a gap in the trunk, wide enough to fit a human, and squeezed himself in. The next moment a trapdoor opened, causing his feet to fall out underneath him, and he hurtled bodily down a dark chute with a whoosh.

Two hundred feet down, to be precise. Sasuke was a paranoid Prince.

Orochimaru and Kabuto were waiting for him at the end of his journey, like they always were. As soon as his feet touched the floor, they sprang eagerly to greet him.

"Well, well, well. Sasuke-sama, welcom back. You look stunning as always," Kabuto declared, his eyes sliding up and down Sasuke's form in appreciation.

"You look absolutely breathtaking," Orochimaru gasped at the same time.

"May I comment on how beautiful that black material contrasts with your complexion?" Kabuto asked, stepping closer.

"Black is definitely your color," Orochimaru agreed.

Kabuto sighed, closed his eyes, and rounded on Orochimaru. "Stop stealing my words, you pale snake." Kabuto snapped. "Sasuke is mine!"

Orochimaru gave him the middle finger. "Fuck off loser! Sasuke has never shown the slightest interest in you! You're ugly!"

"Well, tough luck for you, cuz you're uglier!" Kabuto snarled.

Sasuke almost cringed. He didn't know which was worse, Kabuto hitting on him, Orochimaru hitting on him, or them fighting over him. His jutsu to make them succumb to his every wish was obviously flawed. But he was a Prince, he didn't have to take any of this.

"Shut the fuck up! Both of you! I need silence to think!"

There was silence. Immediately. Kabuto and Orochimaru were used to Sasuke shouting, but when he got really pissed, it was time to worry about their health.

"Now, about that new gadget. You've been building it here, have you not? I want it ready by tomorrow, no excuses." Sasuke commanded.

"Technically, it's a six-foot auto Blast Tanker with six magma cannons and ten nuclear snipers complete with two caterpillar tracks for rough terrains," Kabuto corrected. "And there still are many errors we have to fix with the shooting precision. It could take months to complete."

Sasuke looked Kabuto in the eye, and his subordinate suddenly felt the world tilt at an impossible angle. "I said, I want it by tomorrow." His voice was laced with acid complete with flecks of steel.

"Yes, Sasuke-sama. I'll work on it right away, Sasuke-sama." Kabuto scurried off, his heart beating wildly. For a moment there, he thought he'd seen his life flashing before his eyes.

Meanwhile, Orochimaru was staring wistfully at Sasuke. "Sasuke-sama, is there anything I can do to help you? Will you be staying long tonight?"

"No, I will be leaving shortly." Sasuke said. "Pass me those blueprints."

Orochimaru handed them over. But he wasn't about to give up on Sasuke yet; Kabuto was gone and for once he was alone with Sasuke. It would be so easy to reach out and touch him now, before Sasuke got a chance to break his fingers. Such an opportunity would never come again. Orochimaru decided he better make this good.

Sasuke was studying the blueprints of the new Blast Tanker when he suddenly felt a hand envelope his crotch, and squeeze down slightly. His knees almost buckled then and there. "Stop this right. Now." he said, trying to keep his voice calm and controlled. A pale hand snaked up his waist, and Sasuke forced himself to remain still.

"Now, now Sasuke, you know you want this." Orochimaru said, delightedly.

And Sasuke saw red. This man deserved death a thousand times over, Sasuke had no idea why he'd put up with his existence for so long. Gritting his teeth, he summoned up a sizeable amount of chakra in his right arm, blue sparks forming around his fist. By the time his ex-sensei realized what was happening, it was much too late to flee. With the chirping of a thousand birds, his fist pierced through Orochimaru's flesh, coming out at the other side.

Orochimaru let out a bloodcurdling shriek as blood spattered from the wound onto Sasuke's robes, his robes and the floor. Something squelched nastily as Sasuke ripped his hand from the bloody shoulder and let the man fall to the ground, writhing in pain.

Sasuke surveyed the results of his attack. Not too bad. There was a gaping hole in the pale man's shoulder. Gaping space, to be more apt. The arm was now attached to its body by a few strands of meat. A huge chunk of blood, muscle and bone decorated the once spotless floor.

Sasuke looked down calmly at a screaming Orochimaru. "I thought you would have known better, Orochimaru-sensei. I am not the same person I was all those years ago. Perhaps this will teach you a lesson, never to fuck with me again when I say no."

Orochimaru groaned in pain. "Sasuke-sama… please…"

"Kabuto will check back in a few hours, if you're lucky. Be glad you're alive." Sasuke said coldly. Then he was gone, quick as a shadow, silent like the wind.

It was like he was never there.

-to be continued-