Kyuubi vs. Orochimaru

The air was thick with the smell of brimstone and poison, even if Orochimaru's throat wasn't being crushed by an iron grip he would have been struggling to breathe. It burned his lips and nostrils, as the air rattled passed his slowly compressing windpipe. His hands still clung to Kyuubi's wrist, his nails imbedded in the demon's skin, but he no longer had the strength to attempt prying the claws off his neck, they merely hung there as a weak protest. The searing pain of his broken bones no longer even reached his brain, all he felt was the pinching, constantly tightening grip around his neck, and the infecting burn of demon chakra that was the only thing he could suck into his lungs.

Blood splattered onto the ground, thick and dark. There was so much blood, so much life draining onto the dirt and ash. As he heard it drop to the ground and bubble and sizzle in reaction to the burning world Orochimaru smiled.

It was not his blood.

- - -

Several Hours Earlier

- - -

Kyuubi and Orochimaru had a strange sort of relationship between them. Considering that most people died or went incomprehensibly insane after touching minds with a demon, it made sense that one of the five humans to ever survive and endure it would have gained the privilege (or the curse) of being an acquaintance of a tolerable sort to the demon by whom he had been scorched. Orochimaru was possibly the only human currently alive that could say he had the faintest inkling as to how the demonic mind worked, and also one of the only to remain alive after pissing a demon off more than once. Unfortunately for him, a demon's memory never falters, and every misstep he managed to survive built upon every other one and festered in Kyuubi's mind and gave him one more reason not to let the next one slide.

However, for being the brilliant ninja he was, there were some moments during which he could be quite stupid. Almost every moment he spent with Kyuubi was one of them. Orochimaru was too confident in his immortality and his smooth wit, and he was so accustomed to looking down on the people around him he forgot to distinguish one from the other and unwisely used the same attitude with all of them. Kyuubi did not appreciate that. No one would, but most people couldn't rightly say Orochimaru wasn't above them. For the most part Kyuubi let Orochimaru's attitude slide for the sheer amusement in the fact that Orochimaru honestly believed Kyuubi couldn't kill him as easily as he very well could. And because of their supernatural connection Kyuubi was more inclined to be tolerant of Orochimaru's human misconceptions. But that was as far as Kyuubi's tolerance stretched; under the current stress he gave no leeway for ego.

Orochimaru knew that. He was well aware of Kyuubi's current attitude, and how much he had riding on this tournament, and how short his fuse currently was. He just didn't care. He enjoyed seeing how far he could push people, and Kyuubi's reactions were always the best and biggest.

So as he and Kyuubi sat on the imported ruins of an ancient temple in the west wing, Orochimaru folded into a window-circle and Kyuubi lounging over a half-collapsed stairway. They spoke little but the tension between them was tangible. Orochimaru twisted a strand of his hair amusedly around his index finger, a small smirk on his face as he watched Kyuubi brood beneath him. Orochimaru had joined him he there not long after leaving the medical ward, and Kyuubi had not moved since, aside from the angry flicking of his tails. Kyuubi was ready to kill, and that made it all the worse, and Orochimaru could push his buttons without a second thought by now—which in itself was enough annoyance that he didn't need to do anything. Kabuto hovered in and out, waiting nervously for their round to begin, but they were the last fight of the day, and the other fighters were taking longer than before, driving this fight's beginning into dusk. Orochimaru just chuckled and frayed Kabuto's nerves even further with his sheer indifference.

Kabuto had just walked back into the ruins for the umpteenth time when the announcement of the previous fight's end echoed down the hall and Kabuto practically jumped out of his skin. Orochimaru looked up, dropping the strand of hair, and Kyuubi's tails went suddenly still.

"And now ladies and gentlemen!" Death's voice boomed, adding softly, "Those of you left…Kyuubi vs. Orochimaru!"

Kabuto hadn't even looked back at Orochimaru before he had to fall flat to the ground to dodge a flying piece of stone that had been thrown from the wall of the ruins where Kyuubi had slammed into it in pursuit of Orochimaru as he dashed from his cubby. Kyuubi broke through the wall, utterly destroying the priceless antiquity with one burst of energy. He and Orochimaru were on a break-neck chase through the mall instantly, jumping from wall to wall, dodging around and breaking through kiosks, shattering windows and the bridges over the waterway with their exchanged blows as they chased each other through the halls. Kyuubi knocked aside shuriken with ease, mostly letting them ping off his aura without so much as blinking, but on occasion catching one and chucking it back at the ninja. Orochimaru chuckled as he ducked under a bridge connecting two shops that sold bird cages and fishnets, through which Kyuubi bulldozered a moment latter, sending it in chunks of marble and concrete to the path below, sending the few unsuspecting patrons that had lingered in the mall screaming for the safety of the indoor shops.

Kyuubi was not even running at full speed, he knew Orochimaru knew Kyuubi could outrun him easily if he wished, and thought that the ninja must have already planned for that. This was a suitable battle style for now; he would wait to see where Orochimaru took him. They made it clear across the mall in only a few minutes, and ended up at the athletic wing, where there was a fully stocked and high-tech gym set up for members of a special club. One wall was entirely glass, looking out on the Olympic-size swimming pool, and just past that was the resort pool, an oval pit with circular stands poking up at random like marble islands, the whole thing the size of a small lake. Orochimaru barreled through the walls and into the exercise equipment as if they were paper cutouts and not million-dollar pieces of equipment. Kyuubi broke his own way in, grabbed two fifty-pound weights and hurled them at Orochimaru with enough force to send the ninja crashing through the window and plummeting into the far end of the lap pool. Kyuubi climbed into the frame of the window, ignoring the small shards of broken glass littering the sill, and folded his arm to wait. It wasn't long before Orochimaru's hand sprouted from the water, got a chakra-grip of the surface and heaved him heavily out of the pool so he stood on the water, hunched over and panting, an amused smile on his face.

"Having fun, Kyuubi-kun?" He asked, cocking his head back in a strange, twisted angle.

A low rumble gathered at the back of Kyuubi's throat. "I've been waiting for this."

"I know."

"It is a shame, you know." He said, stepping down from the window frame, crunching the scattered glass beneath his feet. "That new rule isn't going to do any good for either of us."

"Oh?" Orochimaru twisted his head to the other shoulder. "And why not?"

"For one, Kabuto wont be able to provide any help."

"You think so?"

Kyuubi smirked, and then with one deathly smooth movement reached around the window frame, snatched Kabuto by the shoulder and dragged him out of his hiding place. Then he gripped him by the back of the head and slammed his face into the glass-dusted ground so hard he was instantly unconscious, and blood pooled beneath his head.

"I do." Kyuubi said, standing again. "And everyone else hates both of us."

Orochimaru tutted, pursing his lips in mock sympathy. "Do turn him on his side so he doesn't drown in his own blood."

Kyuubi rolled his eyes and kicked Kabuto up onto his right side and let him slump there, looking terribly pitiful, his glasses carved into the bridge of his nose and cheekbones. Orochimaru and Kyuubi gave him no more notice from there, and locked eyes once more, burning to get some violence started.

"So from here, snake, it's just you and me." Kyuubi said, crouching low and grinning wide so all his deadly teeth were bared.

"It seems that way." Orochimaru agreed and then grabbed a kunai from his belt and chucked it at Kyuubi.

Kyuubi crouched low and exploded forward, flying beneath the kunai easily on his path to Orochimaru, but just as he was about to tackle Orochimaru the ninja released the chakra on his feet and fell into the pool, leaving Kyuubi skidding off-balance to a halt upon the strip of land between the two pools. He only had a moment to ponder why Orochimaru remained below the surface before the exploding tag on the kunai detonated and the rest of the wall connecting the pool and exercise room was ripped to pieces and flung in a massive orb of destruction in all directions. Kyuubi cursed as he punched a piece of flying debris off course and away from his face, and shouldered another chunk without flinching, but he had to brace himself and focus on avoiding the shrapnel long enough to let Orochimaru burst from the water and, riding in the shadow of the last of the explosion, land behind Kyuubi and knock him in the back of the head with his elbow and scratch his side with a kunai. The kunai was all but useless, not even strong enough to create a wound that was visible between the time it was made and healed. The only testament to its existence was the slash in Kyuubi's jacket.

"Damn it all, and I was going to take that jacket off you after I won too." Orochimaru grumbled as he jumped over Kyuubi's kick to his hip and landed out of range of Kyuubi's martial attacks.

"This is no time for you to be making jokes, Orochimaru." Kyuubi snarled.

"I'm afraid I never could tell about these things." Orochimaru snickered, and then cocked his head back, lengthening his neck as a low hiss escaped his throat.

Kyuubi growled, and then with a massive spring he charged Orochimaru, clothes-lining him as he burst past, and bringing them both crashing into the oval pool, hitting the shallow bottom hard and breaking apart to swim separately away and to the surface. Kyuubi slammed his hand on the surface, pulling his body free with a flip, landing hard and deep in the water, using it like a trampoline to spring at Orochimaru and grab him by the neck and flip over, smacking him onto one of the platforms, and then swinging his body around so he crouched on top of him, one knee in his belly, his hand pressing down hard on his shoulders.

"You don't seriously think I'd just stand there and let you bring out that sword do you?" Kyuubi growled. "I'm no fool."

Then he punched Orochimaru in the jaw until he heard it crack twice and it hung lopsided and gushing blood. Orochimaru's eyes bulged in anger, and his shout came out in a bloody gurgle, a few teeth tumbling out of his mouth. He clawed Kyuubi's face, his legs flailing in suddenly fired protest, and finally he pulled a new tag out of his belt, and slapped it on Kyuubi's cheek. He felt some satisfaction as part of Kyuubi's face splattered into his hair and the demon fell sideways, howling and roaring as he pitched into the pool. Orochimaru slowly climbed to his feet, as several meters away Kyuubi pulled himself onto another platform, and slowly turned to glare over his shoulder at Orochimaru from his re-forming eye, around which bones and sinews were spider-webbing and thickening, remaking his face like a cloth on a loom. Orochimaru returned the stare as he gripped his jaw and with a few deep breaths knocked it as close to back in place as his crude method would allow. He hocked up a large clot of blood and spat it into the pool, already streaked with the black ooze from Kyuubi's veins. Kyuubi's lip curled back in a growl, and he lowered down to all fours, his claws digging into the marble platform and sending cracks along the surface in deep, angry gullies. When sprung he away the platform crumbled behind him, falling in pieces into the pool, sending violent waves through the water. Orochimaru leapt to meet Kyuubi in midair, where they collided and tangled, nails and claws flailing, their momentum jerked off-course so they fell to the water once more. They smacked onto the surface hard, tumbling on the surface half-submerged, each trying to maintain enough chakra to stay up but little enough to drown the other. Orochimaru's blood spotted the water, as Kyuubi tore more skin from his body, but it was mostly his top layer, and he reformed it smoothly. Finally Orochimaru planted a foot in Kyuubi's gut and pushed off hard enough to get him airborne and shove Kyuubi underwater.

As Orochimaru flipped over and aimed his decent at a small island, he watched where Kyuubi had submerged, and saw with some fear a whirlpool beginning to swirl there. It sent the whole pool into a frothing fit, eventually hitting and opening at the ground, spinning around the angry fireball that was Kyuubi. His skin was peeling and eyes and teeth bulging, he was in half-fox form once more, but there was something more horrible in this body. It twitched and foamed from the places where the fur and skin burned and split, his fur was slicked black with the blood that seeped from his veins and squelched onto the ground, his long, sharp fingers flexed in time with his thrashing tails, his teeth ground into his gums, painting his mouth a rancid, clotted black. Orochimaru didn't know what this difference meant, or what he had done to bring it out, but he did know exactly how to handle it.

When Kyuubi's rattling, shrill and yet still thundering howl shook Orochimaru from his shocked trance he instantly sprung to action—and ran. The water frothed beneath him, making it difficult to create footholds, but being exceptionally skilled and newly desperate as he was, Orochimaru managed it. That was, until it caught fire. He was so unwilling to believe the ridiculousness of it for a moment he didn't fully realize the fire spilling towards him along the water. When he finally did he hardly had time to spring up into the air, tumble over the line racing towards him and land safely on one of the marble platforms. But then Kyuubi was bearing down on him, that howl more terrible than any noise in nature ripping from his throat, and Orochimaru in a panic took to the air again, narrowly avoiding the crushing blow that shattered the platform behind him. The fire Kyuubi had set upon the pool was not a full blanket, it spread like a net, crisscrossing and shifting with the waves and bending to Kyuubi's will. Orochimaru managed to survive by landing briefly on open pockets and platforms, springing around the pool blindly, searching for the way out over the death-pit this pool was fast becoming. But with the raging fire and the necessity to place all of his focus primarily on where he was landing in the next jump, never mind which path to take, Orochimaru feared he could just as well be spinning circles. But so long as he was avoiding Kyuubi he didn't really mind.

That brought his attention on another fact. Why hadn't Kyuubi caught him yet? He wasn't exactly at his craftiest at that moment, Kyuubi honestly should have been able to catch and destroy him by this point. Spurred by this thought he risked pausing after his next jump just long enough to add a double burst of strength into his next spring and with a mighty heave he made it to the ceiling where he clung, and twisted his head back to look for Kyuubi. What he saw would have, had his jaw not still been shattered, brought a smile to his face. Kyuubi was jumping around the pool, destroying what got in his way, leaving a trail of fresh fire behind him, a massive ball of total fury but without method or reasoning. He should have seen Orochimaru spring up here and followed him by now, but he was on a blind rampage of pure wrath. Terrifying, yes, but in the end a better situation than Kyuubi when he was in a good mood. Kyuubi had lost control, pushed to edge by too many small annoyances, and getting his face half-destroyed must have been the metaphorical straw on his back. Kyuubi simply wasn't thinking anymore, he just wanted to tear Orochimaru, or at this point anything, apart and watch it burn. Orochimaru was surprised he had enough restraint not to go into full fox form, he assumed that restraint was what was causing the corrosion of his body, but had he transformed he would have destroyed half the mall with his sheer girth and been most likely given an out of bounds—something that would have stopped him from causing the destruction he was craving, even his blackened mind comprehended that.

Orochimaru's self-satisfied train of thought stopped dead when he realized the world beneath him was no longer raging. His body went cold as he felt the horrible, piercing, violating stare of pure evil upon him. He refocused his line of sight and saw that Kyuubi had stopped still and was crouched beneath him, sprawled on the blackened water, now devoid of fire, looking up at him with wide, solid-black eyes, and slowly his mouth split and a long, sharp-toothed grin spread the terrible maw disturbingly wide. Orochimaru was paralyzed under that gaze, that look of knowledge in the hunter's stare just before his prey is caught. Orochimaru dared not move, uncertain if even the smallest gesture would trigger his doom. But he didn't have to do anything.

With that unnerving shriek in the air once more Kyuubi was up in Orochimaru's face in one blur of black and red fire. He paused again, his eyes staring into Orochimaru's with a blank hunger that made Orochimaru feel fear again. Then he opened his maw and lunged. Orochimaru screamed through his mangled mouth and leapt away just before Kyuubi tore off his face, but the demon caught his ankle, folded the leg as if the bones were not there, shattering them in several places like dry twigs and then flung him down. Orochimaru hit the water and tried to let himself sink, but Kyuubi was already there again, and hoisted Orochimaru by the neck, for which Orochimaru was grateful, as he could activate his jutsu and let his neck elasticize as much as it need as Kyuubi spun him and threw him again. This time Orochimaru skidded along the top of the water, and caught his hands on the surface. He hoisted himself up and began flipping, landing one-footed and traveling with the speed only granted to those truly running for their lives. Kyuubi cackled, and closed the gap between them instantly, grabbing Orochimaru's hair and throwing him onto his back, where he then planted his claws deep into his belly and lifted him by his middle, blood pouring over his arm. Fresh blood poured out of Orochimaru's mouth, and then Kyuubi cocked his arm as if holding no more than a ball and tossed Orochimaru with enough force to throw him through the far wall and two more after that.

Orochimaru fell among the rubble, and laid there, motionless. He could move hardly anything, his head was spinning, the blood would not stop spilling, he had never felt so close to death. He heard footsteps, and hardly dared to look up, but he felt a sense of control from the aura, and it was weaker…it was not Kyuubi.

"Are you out?"

It was Death by Chocolate. Orochimaru could not speak, so he lifted one of his few unbroken limbs and responded with a gesture that seemed too light a commentary on his current mindset, but would have to suffice.

Death chuckled. "Good. Carry on…And do finish this quickly, I need to get repairs done by tomorrow morning."

Orochimaru heard Death's footsteps fade and his mind began racing. Why wasn't Kyuubi there yet? He was one kick to the head away from unconsciousness, but he could not even feel Kyuubi's aura except as a distant flame. He did not brood on that long, he instead sifted through his ninja pack until he found the small, indestructible bottle Kabuto had given him. His loyal servant had purchased it with all his money for this specific fight, something called a healing potion. Unoriginal name, and an all too easy answer from some other, less hardened, world, but Orochimaru wasn't going to complain. He spent a few minutes struggling to uncork it and then slowly, meticulously, eased it down his throat.

- - -

Kyuubi lay curled at the bottom of the pool, shaking and oozing foul liquids, flailing in the blood-darkened water uncontrollably. He could not breathe, but what was more he could not get out. He had lost all control of his body, his mind in some distant place his animal thoughts could not reach and regain. His body was tearing itself apart, as it tried to do too many things, burn and slash and destroy…oh to destroy. He wanted to destroy so badly he was killing himself, his entire essence was just eating itself and exploding from him with so much rage it took pieces of his body with it, which were instantly re-built and broken again, in a cycle that made his entire body burn and shake.

He was going to die. He. Was. Dying. He had lost control of the one thing in the world that could contend with him, hurt him, destroy him. He had lost himself. His own mind had abandoned him, his body turned upon itself, his spirit was smothering under its own conflictions. And all this water pressing down on him, suffocating him, making it all the harder to live. This was not a part of him, all this wetness and cocooning life. He was destruction. He was rage. He was fire. And he felt that within him still. With a sudden sharpness he felt that flame at his core, and scrambled to it, groped for it in the unfocussed darkness, fumbling over spasms and tears as his body began to fall apart, until he felt it burn, and with a terrible desperation he lunged for it. He felt it on his palms, grasped it, clung to it desperately, gasping for its warmth and focus like a fish on the shore—and suddenly there was air. He hacked water and bile from his throat as he stumbled up onto one of the few platforms he had not destroyed, and collapsed there, back in his fully humanized body, his mind with him again.

The shaking stopped slowly, and he heaved himself once more to his feet. He was panting still, but his body was whole, and his mind sharp. He was ready to continue. He had spent most of life on the edge of the pit of destruction, wavered towards it on countless occasions, but that was his way, his existence. He did not linger on it. It did not disturb him, it had passed and he was stronger. But it had hurt. It had caused him tremendous pain and frustration—and someone had to pay for that. He disappeared from that place in a blink, and went to find Orochimaru.

- - -

Aside from the gardens that dotted the mall, there was also a small forest. One massive room had walls entirely of glass, past which one could see the more temperate greenhouses, but this room was not much beyond a collection of massive oak, maple and sycamore trees (brought there by unimaginable means), and moss and sparse grasses carpeted the ground. Orochimaru padded through this scene with a heavy limp. His leg was still fractured, one of his arms had lost most of its sensitivity, though he could still use it for basic motions, and his jaw, though healed, was still tense; he could not get it wide enough to pull his sword out. That sword had been his only hope in this battle to begin with, the only thing he had bothered to reinforce and bet on. This was a huge damper on his plans, for without it he was mostly winging it. Kyuubi's failure to follow him instantly meant he must have gained control again, and though Orochimaru was unsure what exactly that meant for him, he knew he was well within his rights to be terrified of it.

He staked out a hiding place in the boughs of one of the oaks, covered himself with a disguise jutsu, and waited. As he had expected, it did not take long for the entrance to the mall explode inward, followed by the even-paced Kyuubi, stalking into the indoor forest, a new jacket billowing behind him. He surveyed the room with narrowed eyes, now back to their usual gold color, and possessed of that calm, focused lust for violence Orochimaru had gained a kind of perverted fondness for. It was night by now, and moonlight painted the forest silver, making Kyuubi' fiery colors stand out more than they already did, making him one spot of fire in an icy world.

That did not suit him. With a small smirk lifting the corner of his mouth he abruptly held his hands up and the trees around him exploded into fiery pillars. Orochimaru slipped from his cover immediately, dropping to the concealed side of the tree, ready to spring away the second the flames drew near.

"Come out, come out wherever you are." Kyuubi grumbled, his voice quiet but still it rumbled through the air and filled the room.

Orochimaru tensed, waiting for a moment he wasn't even sure would come. Some opening…ANY opening. He just needed something to give him that first step off of which he could build a real plan. Kyuubi was drawing closer, trees bursting into fire as he passed, with only a flick of his fingers to ignite them. His rage alone combusted the air around him, the fire spreading steadily, with him as the focal point. Orochimaru cursed softly, he would gain no advantage by merely waiting for Kyuubi to be upon him, he had to hope for the element of surprise. He had to start it.

He vaulted up the tree, and from his higher ground he dropped on Kyuubi with an angry hiss. Kyuubi caught him by the shoulders effortlessly, not so much as a flinch of surprise, and knocked him hard against a tree. The trunk splintered, and the fractures in Orochimaru's leg shattered apart once more. His shriek of pain fueled Kyuubi on, and the demon twisted Orochimaru's arm over his shoulder, popping the socket and flipping him onto his back, knocking the breath from his lungs. He tossed him around for a few moments more, battering Orochimaru as if he were beating dust from a rug. Then he paused, and took a solid grip around Orochimaru's throat, lifting him by it and holding him high off the ground, glaring up into his face.

"This is the price you pay." Kyuubi snarled. "A million of your former comrades lives would never have spared you this payment. You've owed me this debt for some time."

Orochimaru could not respond, the fire was closing in, that poisonous chakra that infected all the air, and Kyuubi's hand was tightening. He scrambled at Kyuubi's forearms desperately, raking rows of blood there, until he no longer had the strength to move. Kyuubi continued closing his grip slowly, making it last, letting nothing but the roaring chakra-flame and Orochimaru's gagging resound in the air. Orochimaru had no choice. He had only one hope left.

Orochimaru stretched his neck, falling low to the ground, and Kyuubi's grip grew abruptly tighter, making him gag and flail for a moment. Then he moved his hands to his belt and drew out a kunai, and Kyuubi smirked, amused by how desperate Orochimaru had become—but he had not realized the real, full extent. Orochimaru brought the kunai to his own throat, dug in the point and slashed his neck open.

Kyuubi's eyes widened in shock, completely at a loss on how to respond. But then he saw where Orochimaru's brilliant insanity had taken him, as a snake with a gaping maw sprung from the opening and from it's throat Orochimaru drew Kusanagi with a defiant, determined swipe. Kyuubi could have laughed at the futility, kusanagi could damage him surely, but not enough to bring Orochimaru back from the brink. His confidence made him too slow, and he all but opened his chest for Orochimaru to plunge the blade into. His blood dropped to the ground in a heavy splash. He smirked at first, looking at Orochimaru with condescending pity—and then he screamed.

With a shriek of such pitch it shattered the panes of the surrounding windows, Kyuubi dropped the snake ninja and stumbled back a few steps, tugging futilely at the hilt of the sword imbedded in his chest. It would not move, and he would not healed. It had burned into his body, sealed itself there, infecting him with…with…some dreadful, awful contamination that was like acid in his veins. He dropped to his knees, gagging and hacking up blood, scrambling at the sword with horrified rage.

"HOW?!" He roared at Orochimaru. "How could you DO this?!"

Orochimaru chuckled, his neck now back to normal. "It's quite simple Kyuubi. Everyone may hate me, but they hate you more."

Kyuubi was panting for breath as the poison seeped into his lungs. He could not move, and merely stared at Orochimaru with so much burning hatred the chakra fire around them danced and enlarged at the presence of it.

"In a mall this big, they really do sell everything." Orochimaru continued, testing his leg gingerly and finding he could balance himself with it but nothing more. "Even religious services. The sword was steeped in holy water blessed by every priest I could find—even Wolfwood. I think I saw him smile as he did it." He chuckled. "And now all I have to is stand by and wait for you to pass out from all that suffering. I'm sure it'll take awhile…but I'm patient."

Orochimaru laughed darkly, letting it linger and enjoying it as much as he could…until he heard the lower rumble riding beneath it. When he stopped, Kyuubi's laughter rose, until the sharp, barking laughter was grating on Orochimaru's ears painfully and the ninja folded his arms and scowled confusedly down at the demon.

"What?" He snapped. "Why are you laughing?"

Kyuubi looked up at him coolly. "Because you're a damn fool."

With that he grabbed the hilt of the sword and, wincing and growling all the way, he drew it out hissing and slicing as it was extracted from his throbbing chest. Orochimaru's eyes went wide in horror as Kyuubi tossed the blade at his feet and slowly rose to his, a bleeding, sizzling hole still gaping in the middle of his chest.

"That hurt, Orochimaru." He said, low and sinister, "That really fucking hurt. But that's all. No human, no matter how divine, no matter how potent, could ever stop me. My fire burns eternal, and can incinerate anything you care to drive into it."

Something in Orochimaru snapped, and he lost any sort of sense. With a howl he grabbed the sword and lunged at Kyuubi again, flailing the blade in a desperate attempt to cut anything it could reach. Kyuubi grabbed his sword hand by the wrist and pinned it under his arm. He used his other hand to grab Orochimaru by the side of his face drawing them within an inch of each other, eyes locked.

"You've survived my fire twice Orochimaru, do you dare try a third when I'm actually angry at you?" Kyuubi rumbled.

Orochimaru struggled violently. "Do it! Go ahead! See if I fucking care! You'll get yours you mangy dog!"

Kyuubi raged a moment, that soul-scorching fire bundling up within him, ready to explode and incinerate Orochimaru's mind and strike him dead—Kyuubi paused, staring down at Orochimaru's face with a new understanding. From this view Orochimaru was daring him, excited—and then he understood. He roared an explosive curse, all the withheld rage that he suddenly had to restrain flying out in one hardly decipherable cry of rage and then he slammed his fist into Orochimaru' head and the ninja slumped to the ground, unconscious, but alive.

"You mangled little creature…you'll take any victory you can get." He spat on Orochimaru's passed out form. "Not today, snake. The bet's still on."

Then he stalked away from there, the fire extinguishing behind him. He felt his rage bundling within him anew, but with a new understanding of it. It was part of his fire, part of his life. There was no real outlet for it because it was always there, always within him, firing him on, spurring him to his greatest potential. He smiled and felt a new warmth flood through him. He felt more complete than he had in many ages, and he could feel his purpose for being there fast approaching. There was nothing that could oppose him now.