"Finally!" Grimmjow said as he stood up and stretched.
Bratty-black looked up from his scroll. "They're moving?"
Grimmjow growled. "Those bastards better be heading back to Orochimaru or I'll kill them."
Bratty-black shot him a look.
"I'll torture them for Orochimaru's location and then I'll kill them," Grimmjow amended.
"You should have done that before," the boy grumbled.
Grimmjow snorted. "Who knew they'd be so fixated on getting to you. Orochimaru really hates you, huh?"
Bratty-black rubbed his neck with an irritated expression, attached a large metal weapon to his back and opened the window. "The feeling is mutual."
They both jumped out the window and followed a pre-planned route, the emptiest route in the village, that would take them to the main gate and out of the village covertly.
Grimmjow used his pesquisa constantly in short bursts ensuring that their route was clear from people who'd delay their exit from the village. Conveniently, he didn't need his pesquisa to keep track of Orochimaru's minions. The spiritual energy he'd injected into two of them, during their first encounter, somehow flared like a beacon to him. He could pinpoint where they were in relation to him without even trying.
As the large village gates came in to sight, Grimmjow said, "Going through these gates is not sneaky."
The boy sighed in annoyance. "At night, the barrier around the village only notices people who try to sneak in to the village."
"That's stupid," Grimmjow said as he walked through the small door in the corner of the large red closed gates. "No guards. No sense of self-preservation at all."
"Do you want to get stopped?" Bratty-black said, sounding irritated.
Grimmjow still didn't understand how leaving through the gates normally wouldn't alert anyone, but the brat seemed confident so he ignored it, not wanting to waste time in his pursuit of Orochimaru's minions. He knew that people would eventually notice their absence from the village, no matter what Bratty-black said. So he had to hurry before people came to drag them back to the village.
"Slow down!" Bratty-black said and easily kept pace with Grimmjow. "If they know they're being followed, they'll lead us in another direction."
Grimmjow hated the logic in the boy's words but slowed, keeping a constant track on the spiritual energy that he'd injected in to those two minions. "They're heading East of us."
The boy beside him pulled out a map and somehow consulted it in the scarce light for a few seconds. He pulled out two small pellets, swallowed one with a wince and held the other out to Grimmjow. "It's an experimental thing that erases your scent."
Grimmjow growled in annoyance but swallowed the pellet, hating the disgusting after-taste it left in his mouth.
Bratty-black looked at the map one more time before he moved forward.
"Are you retarded?" Grimmjow said, "I said east."
Bratty-black made an impatient sound. "Ninja leave traps behind to deal with pursuers who follow their route directly."
Grimmjow huffed to himself at another bout of sensible logic from the boy, wondering if he should be relieved or annoyed. He decided to stick with annoyed because of the boy's smug and patronizing words. "Why do we have to be so ridiculously far from them?"
"Is it hard for you to track those two?"
"Obviously not," Grimmjow said, his irritation growing considerably.
"Then we're keeping this distance until they finally stop."
"I never thought you'd be one for stealth," Grimmjow said, trying to goad the boy in to changing his plan. A plan which Grimmjow had to follow because of the proximity seal that forced him to stick close to Bratty-black.
The brat shrugged. "There's a time and place for everything."
As they continued their slow trip through the thick trees, the dark sky above them lightened as the sun rose. Grimmjow growled at the slow pace of his targets and struggled to keep his annoyance to himself especially since the brat beside him seemed perfectly fine with the situation.
A seal on Grimmjow's back tingled slightly.
"Oi, is one of the seals on me some sort of tracker?"
Bratty-black nodded.
"You..."
"Orochimaru won't be alone," Bratty-black said. "Do you want to waste time getting to him?"
"Fuck!" Grimmjow ran forward and used a long range pesquisa to find out just what was going on. "Those two brats are coming with four other people."
"Four others?" Bratty-black said in surprise. "They probably thought I was kidnapped."
"Don't be retarded." Grimmjow said, "Who'd be stupid enough to try kidnapping you when I'm stuck with you because of this shitty seal."
The brat shot him an odd look.
Grimmjow concentrated on his pesquisa once again. "They're headed east." Grimmjow growled to the brat beside him. "Your shitty plan is going to make me lose my leads."
Bratty-black rolled his eyes. "These are just complications."
"Complications? They're obviously searching for you. And they're following those four instead. You're absolute shit at planning things."
"You're shittier at it." Bratty-black scoffed angrily."You wanted to go after them the day they attacked."
"At least I had a plan to find Orochimaru," Grimmjow said as they changed directions towards everyone else. "Looks like those four already realized they're being followed even though they're so far ahead."
The brat didn't speak but his expression betrayed his irritation at the complete failure of his plan.
"They're not moving forward," Grimmjow concentrated on his errant spiritual energy. He switched to using his pesquisa to figure out what was going on. "They're waiting for the others." His pesquisa registered an unknown spiritual signature. "There's someone else coming from the direction those four were headed to."
"You don't actually think that the person is coming from Orochimaru." Bratty-black said, "It probably just a coincidence."
"I don't believe in anything like that." Grimmjow frowned for a moment as he remembered the seal that connected him to Bratty-black. Sonido-ing ahead would be impossible because he had to keep a constant distance with the brat. He grimaced but flicked his tail to the side, wrapped it around the boy's wrist and sonido-ed mid-leap.
Grimmjow pinpointed the location of his new target every few minutes with his pesquisa, passing the two spots of his spiritual energy easily, and stopped in a fairly open clearing much further away from his previous targets.
"I increased the seal's distance," the boy said between deep gasps of air and he slumped to the ground.
Grimmjow uncoiled his tail from the boy's wrist. "We're hundreds of feet away from where we were a minute ago."
As one of the spots of his errant spiritual energy moved, signifying that his previous targets were splitting up, Grimmjow readied himself. The trees in front of his rustled and his pesquisa assured him that he'd have company in a matter of minutes.
"They're splitting up and fighting those four," Grimmjow said absently.
"What?"
"Are you worried?" Grimmjow mocked.
Bratty-black tch-ed in annoyance.
Grimmjow readied his spiritual energy.
The tree rustled slightly and a white-haired boy clad in purple landed silently in their clearing. Grimmjow frowned at the shroud of spiritual energy surrounding the boy.
The boy blinked slowly, looked at Grimmjow for a moment before he concentrated on Bratty-black and rasped out, "Sasuke-kun."
"What's a dying shit like you doing so far from your grave?" Grimmjow said in annoyance.
The boy blinked again, seemingly surprised at Grimmjow's words."I'm here to take Sasuke-kun to Orochimaru-sama."
Bratty-black snarled and shifted into a fighting stance.
"So you're one of Orochimaru's people too. Good, that makes things so much easier now." Grimmjow felt his mood improve and pulled his spiritual energy, ready to extract the information he wanted from the boy.
"You're Orochimaru-sama's precious future body," the white-haired boy said confidently.
Grimmjow actually paused, stopping his attack and froze in his position. "What?"
Thankfully the white-haired boy wasn't looking at him. He was looking beyond him to Bratty-black.
"So," Grimmjow said as he processed the white-haired boy's revelations and turned to the brat. "You're Orochimaru's bastard kid? You're spiritual energies aren't similar but I guess humans are different..."
Bratty-black said, "There's no way I'm related to him."
"You heard him," Grimmjow suppressed a laugh. "You're Orochimaru's precious future."
"Don't make up your own explanations!"
Grimmjow turned back to the white-haired boy. "Oi, where's Orochimaru? I'm all for reuniting family and shit."
"You're willing to go to Orochimaru-sama?"
"Completely." Grimmjow stifled another laugh. "So willing that I've been waiting for over a week to reach him. Those four bums weren't willing to... help us."
"What about you, Sasuke-kun?"
"Like hell I'd..." The brat glared.
Grimmjow flicked a tail at the brat making sure to hit exposed skin. "Sasuke's obviously coming too." Grimmjow turned to the brat. "Isn't that right?"
Bratty-black, or rather Sasuke, glared at him moodily but nodded.
The boy stared between the both of them, searching for something then said, "Then I, Kimimaro, will deliver you to Orochimaru-sama. Since the sound four failed to enhance your curse seal, Kabuto will have some extra work."
"Right," Grimmjow wondered if this was a good idea. Non-violence always seemed like a bad idea. That's what had gotten him stuck with the brats in the first place.
"I'll get rid of the useless trash who couldn't do their job for Orochimaru-sama later." The boy's green eyes narrowed. "How dare they go against Orochimaru-sama's orders?"
Grimmjow snorted. "Shit, you're like a real human Ulquiorra."
The white-haired boy tilted his head to the side. "I did not know that Sasuke-kun would be accompanied by a companion."
Grimmjow flicked his tail in amusement, wondering just how much he could mess with the boy. "I'm eager to meet Kabuto again. Me and him go way back."
"I see."
Grimmjow grinned as he imagined the boy's reaction when Grimmjow killed Orochimaru in front of him. "How can you move so easily when you're already half-dead?"
"Orochimaru-sama's power strengthens me to accomplish anything."
"I see," Grimmjow retorted, hiding Sasuke's mocking snort easily. He groaned when a seal on his back tingled again. "So, how about we speed this trip up. We shouldn't keep that fuc... Orochimaru waiting."
"Yes, you're right," the boy said and picked up speed.
The seal on Grimmjow back flared uncomfortably again and he caught of whiff of familiar scents. Even without his pesquisa he knew their followers were catching up with them.
Their white-haired paused and turned. "You two should go ahead to the Valley of the End. Kabuto-san will be waiting further away in that direction. I will take care of these insolent trash." Without waiting for a response he leapt away from them and headed back in the direction they had come from.
Grimmjow recognized Fox-brat's energy and said, "You do that."
"Don't even think about it." Sasuke pulled his hand away and shoved in his his pockets when Grimmjow turned to him.
"But you're slow. Fuck, it'll take forever to reach the place." Grimmjow frowned as he noticed the expression on the brat's face. "You want to fight that white-haired guy?"
"Keeping his alive is a liability," Sasuke said.
"He's dying," Grimmjow said. "Since his soul is already half-out of his body, he probably has less than two hours to live."
"What?"
Grimmjow wrapped his tail around the surprised boy's ankle.
"No, wait! The..."
Grimmjow just sonido-ed ahead. But no matter how far he went, he never left the forest cover. He stopped for a moment and decided to use his pesquisa to gain his bearings.
"You went in the wrong direction," Sasuke yelled after taking a deep breath.
"Why didn't you tell me that before?" Grimmjow tsk-ed in annoyance. "So which way then, Sasuke?"
"You think using my name is going to make me help you all the time?"
Grimmjow just looked at him blandly, pointedly making a show of waiting for an answer.
Sasuke glared but pointed the direction.
Grimmjow tightened his tail around the boy's ankle and sonido-ed in the pointed direction, but had to stop frequently to check if he was going in the correct direction. When Grimmjow finally stopped by a gushing river, he grimaced at the lost time after noticing the afternoon sunlight. Grimmjow eyed the large statues that framed the waterfall as he sniffed around the bank carefully. "That Kabuto's trail clearly leads to the other side of this water."
"This is such an obvious trap."
"Like I care," Grimmjow said as he felt one spot of his spiritual energy disappear. Spurred on by the obvious death of one of Orochimaru's minions, Grimmjow said, "I intend to eat Orochimaru's soul today, no matter what."
"Don't! I can..."
Grimmjow landed on the other side of the water with a thump. The brat cursed again as he steadied himself.
"Stop pulling me around."
"Stop being so slow," Grimmjow retorted easily.
He tilted his head a little to the side, feeling like he was being watched and used his pesquisa. When he got the information back, and even though he didn't recognize the hidden spiritual energy in the ground, he shot a cero at the base of the large tree.
The brat behind him exclaimed in surprise.
"So much of your spiritual energy spread out in the ground." Grimmjow growled. "Trying to escape after hiding from me, shit-head?"
Even as the smoke and rubble cleared, Grimmjow shot a barrage of ceros in a circular pattern at the ground, confusing his target for a split second.
"Hey, you can't run away," Grimmjow said as he pinpointed his target's location and landed beside it with a burst of sonido. "That's not nice, especially when you disturbed my hunt." Grimmjow wrapped his tail around his target's body, sonido-ed back to the river and landed on the water's surface.
Grimmjow spread his spiritual energy on the surface of the water and said, "You can't escape now. Not when it's my energy that's at your feet."
His captive cursed.
Grimmjow noticed the captive's outfit. "Oh? Black coat with red clouds... you're that Itachi and Fish-face's companion. Today must be my lucky day." He stared at the spiked plant-like protrusions that surrounded a human-looking black and white face and realized that he couldn't find any trace of a human soul.
Finally the plant-like creature, because there was no way it was an actual human, spoke in a rough guttural voice. "How did you find me?"
Grimmjow replied with, "Are you working for Orochimaru?"
"Who'd work for him?"
"But you obviously know fish-face and Itachi, right?" Grimmjow flicked his tail through the air, keeping watch of the creature's spiritual energy.
The creature didn't reply.
He didn't really have to. The outfit was enough of a confirmation for Grimmjow. Grimmjow slashed his claws, allowing thin lines of spiritual energy to cut through the air as they raced towards the creature.
Grimmjow sonido-ed to the creature's side, blasted a cero point blank at it's side making sure that his hit would push the creature further away from land.
Cloth sizzled, chunks of flesh exploded and the creature landed a few feet away on the water. Grimmjow watched as the creature's body regenerated the chunk of flesh he'd destroyed with his cero.
"Grimmjow, what..."
"Sasuke, Grimmjow! Sakura-chan is mad at you both and..." A loud horrified gasp. "That outfit!"
Two voices yelled from both sides of the river simultaneously.
The creature looked away from Grimmjow for a moment. "The Jinchuuriki?"
Grimmjow pounced and blasted another cero at the creature's chest.
It ducked a little to the side but flesh still exploded through it's back. Grimmjow noticed the lack of red blood just as the creature kicked him back and attempted to jump to the river bank.
"Don't interfere!" Grimmjow yelled even as he sonido-ed in front of the rapidly healing creature and threw it back to the center of the river, stopping it's escape attempt yet again. "Shitty defense and healing... can't you at least attack?"
Grimmjow flexed his body for a jump, but his limbs froze as a thick white mass bubbled in to existence around him and froze his movements while simultaneously disturbing his spiritual energy.
"You don't have any chakra to drain." His opponent frowned, his voice sounding completely different from before, even as he moved away. Softer and more calm. "You're only using spiritual energy."
"So that's what these things were trying to do." Grimmjow shifted and numerous spikes, usually hidden in his body armour, emerged with a burst of spiritual energy that easily cut off all the white mass hindering him. "You're annoying." He shot another cero.
Once more the cero ripped through the body, this time leaving a huge hollow-like hole. The plant-creature gurgled oddly for a second, before it fell face-forward staying on top of the water because of the spiritual energy that Grimmjow had spread out before.
Grimmjow stared at the unmoving body. He felt victorious when the hole he'd blasted didn't close up at all. "Third time's the charm."
"Grimmjow," The brats' teacher jumped on to the water surface and grabbed the black clothed body. "You did good, but I'll take this now, okay?"
Grimmjow let him, wondering just when he'd joined them. He had no use for a dead body of something that didn't even give a soul for him to eat. Grimmjow jumped on to the solid land, confident and eager to chase after Orochimaru again.
Horrified yelps of surprise stopped him.
"Naruto! Sasuke!" The brats' teacher yelled.
Grimmjow turned and saw the brats trapped by a large glowing white mass. Grimmjow growled and sonido-ed to the dead body, that had been laid on the ground, but it was too late.
An explosion of smoke and gas erupted around the seemingly dead body.
Grimmjow strengthened his jaws with spiritual energy mid-sonido, grabbed hold of something fleshy and pulled viciously. Amidst the sounds of tearing flesh and cursing, Grimmjow jumped up into the air and hovered there.
When the smoke finally cleared, Grimmjow opened his jaws and threw whatever he was holding at the brats' teacher.
The man caught hold of a long white arm, complete with deep bite marks, with a grim look even as Grimmjow stretched out his senses.
"He's gone," Grimmjow said, unable to detect the hidden presence anywhere close.
The brat's teacher said, "You're sure?"
Grimmjow shot the man a patronizing look and landed on the ground with an embarrassing and angry realization. "He didn't have a soul." Grimmjow snarled. "He managed to fool me because he didn't have a soul."
The man looked ready to ask more questions, but they were interrupted by a loud explosion in the distance beyond the river.
"Wasn't Orochimaru supposed to be in that direction?" Sasuke said as he eyed the plume of black smoke rising in the distance.
The brats' teacher sighed. "He probably destroyed his current hideout and left, removing any trails to him."
"Damn those red cloud wearing shit-heads. It's not enough that they gave that Jiraiya a chance to put shitty seals on me. Now they're disturbed my hunt for Orochimaru," Grimmjow snarled. "I'll make them pay."
"Everything is always about you, isn't it, Grimmjow?" the man said as he somehow placed the white arm in a paper scroll. "We better head back."
"Like hell I'm going back now," Grimmjow said and moved away from the group. He barely made it five feet before his body stopped moving. He unwillingly felt betrayed. "You reduced the seal's distance!"
"No," Sasuke said immediately. "The seal parameters revert automatically when my chakra..."
-x-x-x-x-x-
Sasuke looked unusually solemn as he completed his entire explanation and finally said, "My initial plan failed but you have to admit our final find was well-worth it."
The Hokage stared down at him with angry eyes. "Your plan left three genin in critical condition because you chose to go off on your own without informing anyone."
Sasuke seemed content to force his anger down and stay silent.
Grimmjow glared. "If they wanted to stay uninjured then they should have just hidden here."
The still-injured and obviously weakened brats had the audacity to try and make him stop talking.
But the blonde lady just rubbed her forehead in irritation. "Just tell me about the Akatsuki member you encountered."
Grimmjow stared at her dully.
"If you're unwilling to share information, I'll happily confine you to the village with some seals." She narrowed her eyes.
Grimmjow didn't feel the slightest bit intimidated by her threats.
And it must have shown.
Sakura spoke up. "Hokage-sama, Grimmjow is more comfortable talking to the members of Team seven only. We can give you his information later, right?"
The blonde woman knew it was utter rubbish but she nodded anyway. "You have by the end of the day to hand me the information. And Uchiha, you'll be handed your punishment later."
Grimmjow turned away and stayed silent during their entire trip to Sasuke's home. The minute he knew that they were completely alone, with a convenient check of his pesquisa, Grimmjow turned to the orange-clad brat. "Why are they after you?"
"What? Who? They're not..."
Grimmjow snorted at the bad attempt at denial. "That plant-freak looked right at you and called you a Jinchuuriki."
"I..." he said softly. "really don't know what you're talking about."
"You have another powerful source of energy in you," Grimmjow said and leaned forward sounding just a tiny bit crazy. "It's what made me want to eat you the first time, Naruto." He hid his amusement at the boy's reaction to being called by name. He'd purposely kept from saying their real names up till this, just for this.
Their shock and happiness of being referred to by name after so long, would make them even more eager to help him.
At least, Grimmjow hoped it did. "But later I realized that energy was corrosive. There was something almost demonic about it..."
The other two brats seemed stunned by their conversation but didn't interrupt.
"That's what they want, right?" Grimmjow said.
Naruto didn't answer.
"Either way, this is perfect!" Grimmjow paced around the three brats.
"It is?"
Grimmjow snorted. "Of course, I don't even have to search for strong prey. You two are perfect bait for all sorts of people I can kill. It makes being stuck with you morons with these seals a bit more bearable."
The awkwardness disappeared and the boys shared a look that Grimmjow couldn't quite decipher.
Grimmjow turned to the third brat. "Why doesn't anyone want to kill you?"
Sakura shot him a dull look. "I'm sure you have a ton of reasons for that already. More importantly, are you going to tell us about that person you fought? We can't keep Hokage-sama waiting."
"Don't be naive." Grimmjow flicked his tail through the air. "I've finally figured out how this place works. Information is power, so you're not going to give away the information about that plant-guy for free."
"What are you talking about, Grimmjow?" Naruto asked.
"Retards!" Grimmjow remembered the seals on him and stifled his urge to attack the three of them, managing only to growl at them. "We're going to get proper payment for this information."
"But..." Sakura said hesitantly.
"Tell them you want information on Orochimaru in return for this."
All three brats seemed genuinely shocked at the idea.
"That's actually," Naruto said. "a good idea."
Sasuke nodded.
"But how can we do that?" Sakura asked. "They won't just listen to our demands."
Grimmjow snorted. "That's your problem. Now listen up, because I'm only going to talk about that plant-freak once..."
-x-x-x-x-x-
Grimmjow stood by the gate, watching the people around him with unconcealed distaste. As the three brats chatted away softly, Grimmjow said, "I can't believe you used my hard-earned information to get new teachers."
"For the last time," Sakura said. "That's not all we got. You're conveniently forgetting about..."
"And even worse, I have to share this brat's punishment too." Grimmjow flicked his tail at Sasuke.
Sasuke just sighed. "Our punishment could have been a lot worse then living with Kakashi."
"There's nothing worse!"
Naruto interrupted them. "Talking about such gloomy things when I'm leaving... you guys are really going to miss me a lot, huh?"
Everyone stayed silent.
Naruto stared at all three of them. "What's with those unimpressed looks? Grimmjow? Even you, Sakura-chan?"
No one said anything.
"You're all terrible," Naruto said, turned away with a huff and rushed to Jiraiya who'd been patiently waiting by the gates.
As they walked out of the gates the two brats yelled.
"Get stronger, idiot."
"Stay out of trouble, Naruto!"
"Tell him not to die," Grimmjow said.
The brats turned to him with a surprised look.
"He has three strong people after him!"
Their surprise turned to exasperation.
"Naruto!" Sakura yelled loudly. "Grimmjow says to come back soon."
"That's not what I said!" Grimmjow growled as a loud laugh faded in the distance.
