A/N: So this chapter is sort of all over the place. I figured I would just follow the regular plot line as to HOW he got to Orochimaru, but after this chapter it's going to be all random stuff with only some random plot pieces from the original story line. Enjoy :)
Yumi stared blankly down at the hand wrapped around her left arm. She knew what was happening, but she couldn't understand why. Why on earth would an injured boy want to fight her so badly, especially in her current state? But then again he probably didn't know anything about curse marks. Ignorance is bliss, as some people say.
"Let me go." She demanded coldly. Surprisingly he actually complied, only to take up a fighting stance in front of her. "Seriously?" This bushy brow guy was getting on her nerves. The only consolation she had was that she had managed to injure Naruto quite a bit before he slipped away. Hopefully that would be enough to slow him down until she could go after him.
"I'm not letting you go anywhere until you beat me." He moved into an offensive position in front of her and she stared at him incredulously. He was absolutely serious, AND he was planning on using taijutsu to fight her, when he was injured and she could easily use ninjutsu or even genjutsu if she had the patience or need for it.
"Look here boy." She rambled, attempting to get her hair to lie flat. "I don't have time to waste messing around here with the likes of you." The guy wasn't taking no for an answer, and he launched a roundhouse kick at her head. Jumping back out of the way she flipped over the now empty coffin and used it as a shield as she scrambled to put her thoughts in order. There was going to be no easy way to get around fighting the new boy, and she didn't even know his name so that she could taunt him.
He launched into another bought of attacks and she picked up the coffin so that she could move around while still being shielded. She had no real desire to fight back, and she was just wasting time and energy with him.
"Fight me seriously!" He demanded, kicking the coffin out of her hands. She jumped back from his next kick, catching the following punch in one hand, cringing slightly at the impact that travelled up her arm.
"I can't even take you seriously with those massive eyebrows." He frowned, and she lashed out with an attack of her own. Snakes shot out of her sleeve and wrapped themselves around the boy, trapping him. She picked up one of the kunai she had dropped when she opted for defence instead of offence and held it near his throat, a thoughtful expression on her dull grey face.
"So, how do you like my Senei Jyashu jutsu? Anyway, what's your name? I'm going to need it so that I can decorate your grave marker." Yumi wasn't seriously planning on killing him, but there was nothing wrong with a good threat. All she wanted was to incapacitate him so he wouldn't stop her from leaving.
"Lee. Rock Lee." She stifled a laugh at his name. Seriously? His name is Rock? I think I'll just call him Lee instead… Yumi stiffened as she felt a presence heading their way, but relaxed again when she pinpointed its location. The figure was heading toward them from the base, so it was reinforcements. Kabuto? No way, why would he bother coming back. She didn't have a clue who it could be, but she stepped back from Lee, keeping her back to the area of forest they were approaching from.
"Well then Lee, it looks like I'm going to have to go now. It was a pleasure meeting you, and maybe one day we can fight while you're not injured." Lee was struggling against the snakes, but then a pair of feet hit the ground behind Yumi. She spun around to find out who had come to her aid, gasping in shock when she saw who it was.
"Kimimaru! But, I thought you were injured! What happened? Why are you here?" Yumi had spent days upon days sitting next his bed in the hospital area that Kabuto had set up for him. He had seemed so lonely, and she had had nothing better to do. Eventually it had just become a habit for her to visit him at least once a week.
"Lady Yumi, I have missed hearing your voice over the last few weeks." Yumi blushed, but you couldn't tell because of her grey complexion. "It is time for me to fight once more. You should hurry, leave this boy to me. Lord Orochimaru is waiting for your return." Yeah right, she thought to herself, biting her lip. He's waiting for Sasuke freaking Uchiha, not for me. But that was exactly why she had to hurry, to make sure that Sasuke made it to the base in time. She gave Kimimaru a quick hug before she turned and left, because she had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that it would be the last time she would ever see him.
Sasuke watched in a mixture of boredom and excitement as Naruto approached him. He had originally been content with following Yumi's instructions and going straight to Orochimaru, but this was a distraction he couldn't very well just walk away from. There were rips and tears in the other boy's orange jacket, and as he turned around Sasuke saw the massive gash across his back. He had already been in a fight, a serious one by the looks of it, and he was momentarily jealous of Yumi for fighting him when he was at full strength. It wouldn't be nearly as satisfying for him to beat Naruto when the other boy was already weakened and injured.
Naruto was clenching the blood stained kunai he had pulled from his back in his fist as he stared across the river at Sasuke. It had been a stroke of bad luck to get hit while he was running away; he should have been paying more attention. Now though, as he watched his own blood dripping off the tip, he wondered if it was somehow an omen. Maybe it meant that if he used that kunai he would be able to get Sasuke to come back to his senses and return with him. After that all he needed to do was find Yumi and get her to come back with them as well.
His eyebrows knit together in a frown as his mind drifted back to the strange grey skinned girl he had been fighting, then one who had injured him so badly. The gash across his back twinged and he grabbed his wounded shoulder, dragging his thoughts back to the matter at hand. He didn't have the time to be dwelling on mysterious strangers, not when Sasuke was right in front of him.
Flipping the kunai around in his hand he steadied himself and stepped out onto the river, eyes focused solely on the dark-blue haired boy on the other side of the river.
"Sasuke!" His voice echoed a hundred-fold across the empty expanse surrounding the river. Sasuke turned to watch the other boy in his slow approach. Half of Sasuke's face was covered with black from his curse mark which he still didn't understand how to control. As he activated his sharingan he was shocked to feel the pulse of extra energy. Somehow his sharingan had become more powerful than the last time he had used it.
Naruto sprinted across the river, weaving and dodging to try and avoid any attack Sasuke might throw at him, but the other boy was merely standing there, watching him. As Naruto brought his eyes up to Sasuke's some part at the back of his mind registered that there was now three black swirls in his sharingan. He was too absorbed in his overall focus to actually process any of the possible consequences of that particular change in his friend's skill, and even if he had the time or put in the effort it still wouldn't mean anything to him.
Yumi flinched as she barely avoided running straight into a tree, managing to get away with only a small graze on her left check. She wiped the blood off her check with her thumb and looked at it for a moment. If she hadn't known it was going to happen she wouldn't even have noticed that she got cut. Her upbringing had trained her well, and she was extremely resistant to pain on the lower levels. Scrubbing the blood off of her grey fingers she stared ahead into the trees that lined the path she knew she had to take, wondering vaguely how many more trees she was going to run into while she was distracted.
"Shit!" She cursed under her breath as her arm smacked into a branch she hadn't noticed, causing her to drop the three shuriken she had been holding in that hand. Jumping to the ground she quickly gathered them back up and leapt high, landing in a different tree.
"Oh shit, I'm swearing again." Yumi had a bit of a tendency to swear excessively when she was stressed or under pressure. It would appear that she might just have to start up a swear jar if it kept up.
Ditching the trees for the more convenient, open areas of the dirt covered ground below them she ran as fast as she could, dodging around tree trunks and jumping over rocks that popped up in her path. She was pushing the speed limits of her stage one curse mark release, but she had no desire to go into stage two in case it wore off before they got back to the base, leaving her exhausted and vulnerable for Leaf reinforcements to pick up when they rounded up all the genin they had sent after her.
Yumi froze suddenly, discoloured palm resting against a tree trunk as she tried to process what was going on. She was definitely getting pretty close to wherever the two of them had gotten off to, but something strange was going on over there. There had just been a massive energy flux from the both of them. A larger spike of energy than she would have expected from a simple stage one release. The only explanation she could come up with was that Sasuke had managed to activate stage two.
"Crap. If he wears himself out and I have to drag him to base I swear I'm going to kick his ass into next week…" Naruto though, his distinct energy signature had just become even more powerful, and it was again different.
Fear flashed through her as she realised that the kyuubi must be trying to come out, to take over. It wasn't something she had wanted to experience first-hand, but she knew she had to get there soon and put an end to their childish, time-wasting quarrel.
Breaking out of the cover of the trees Yumi found herself at the edge of a river. At the far end of the river, near the waterfall, Naruto and Sasuke appeared to be having some sort of Rasengan – Chidori off. It was probably supposed to be some epic battle, and it was. Naruto was radiating a sickly orange chakra and Sasuke was definitely in stage two, but it was incomplete. He had wings – ones that looked like hands – and he was flying. If the situation hadn't been dire she would have been jealous.
Running across the river she had to cover her eyes as the two attacks collided, causing a massive flash of bright light. When she opened her eyes again the two of them were collapsed on the river bank. Sasuke was the first to recover, climbing to his knees with his release failing. His headband fell off as he stared down at Naruto's unconscious body. She knew he was unconscious because she could still sense the dreadful kyuubi chakra leaking from his body.
Sasuke didn't seem to be in any mood to move soon, which was made apparent the closer she got. He was being stubborn, and she wondered if he regretted being so forceful on the nine-tails host. Yumi had no patience to waste on his stubbornness or feelings of regret, so she marched over to him and kicked him in the leg.
"Come on Sasuke, leave him be, we have to go. Now!" Yumi grabbed his wrist and dragged the older boy behind her until he snapped out of his daze and ran beside her. They had to hurry, they had wasted far too much time.
She ran through the winding hallways to where she knew her father would be waiting, Sasuke following behind her since he had no idea where to go. Stopping in front of a seemingly plain door she pushed it open, revealing a bandaged man sitting in a throne like chair. At the sound of the door opening he turned to them.
"Sasuke Uchiha, I've been waiting for you." Yumi wasn't entirely sure it was her father until she heard him speak, and then she knew that they had arrived too late. His voiced was laced with barely concealed anger and disappointment, and he had had to make do with one of the spare bodies they had kept laying around the base.
A/N: Senei Jyashu = Sublime Snake Hand