Zero Hour - Chapter 21: Dead Man's Hand
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Sakura grunted as she launched herself into the air in an arc to avoid Kabuto's deadly swipe to her stomach. She collided with a shelf, and its contents scattered to the floor. Reaching out, she grabbed the nearest object in reach and swung hard at Kabuto. The jar cracked over the side of his head, shattering and releasing a foul stench as its contents spilled over Kabuto's shoulder and back. He hissed in pain or disgust, and Sakura took the momentary lapse to jab at his chest with a chakra scalpel.
Kabuto staggered backward, narrowly avoiding her attack, and grabbed her chakra-laden wrist despite the severe damage physical contact did to his hand. Sakura hesitated, and it was her undoing. He yanked her forward and flipped over her. Medical chakra slammed into her shoulder as she had the sense to swerve at the last minute, lest he make contact with her neck and sever her brain stem. Crying out, Sakura bit down on her tongue hard enough to draw blood and rolled. Kabuto let her go.
Overhead, the fluorescent lamp swung back and forth from when one of them had knocked it. Shade and shadow ebbed and flowed over Sakura's face as she regrouped and sent healing energy to her shoulder. Kabuto's glasses shone with every swing of the lamp, flashing, like seconds on a ticking clock. His hand bled where he'd grabbed her, already swelling. Still he smiled.
"I have to admit, you're different from before. I'd wager that's Sasori's doing. You've become more ruthless. Meaner. It doesn't suit you."
Sakura popped her shoulder back into place with barely a grunt. "Don't be so modest, Kabuto. You've brought this out of me all on your own."
Evenly matched, there was no getting around the inevitable—someone would make a mistake out of fatigue or timing, and that would decide this battle. Sakura knew she had to change tactics with him, and fast. But Kabuto was a step ahead of her.
"And you've brought this out of me."
His glasses had bent from when Sakura smashed the jar of preserved human parts across his head. Shards of it bulged from his temple and hair, clogging wounds with blood and formaldehyde. He ripped off the glasses and rubbed his eyes as Sakura watched, tense and ready for whatever he was about to pull. But when he looked up at her once more, she wasn't looking at the same man.
"Kabuto," she said, her voice cracking. "What have you done?"
Mismatched eyes, one his usual black and the other a shade of eerie chartreuse, looked back at her. Pale scales pebbled around his transformed eye, and a violet tear track ran down his nose.
"This world has so much to offer, but people like you live according to invisible constraints others place upon you. That you sacrifice even the possibility of knowledge for the sake of maintaining order and tradition is the greatest tragedy." He curled his lips in a smile that sent a chill up Sakura's spine. "But not me. I won't stop until I know it all. And then, I'll know my place in this world!"
Sakura backed away. "You implanted Orochimaru's DNA within yourself. That's not a medical miracle, it's an abomination."
Kabuto unbuttoned his shirt, revealing more scaly skin over his abdomen. To Sakura's horror, his stomach began to bubble, like tiny hands were entombed beneath the skin and pawing to get out.
"There are those constraints again. Pity, Sakura. That's why you'll die tonight!"
Impossibly, the scales parted and one of the wandering hands reached past it, pulling itself and the attached body out from within Kabuto. A woman's bust hung limp at Kabuto's waist, her long, magenta hair dripping a translucent plasma. The woman sat up with a jerk, ungainly as though robotic, and brought the flute she carried to her lips and played a long, mournful note.
A lingering dirge began to fill the corners of the room. Sakura swore and began to channel her chakra to counteract what was shaping up to be an incredible genjutsu the likes of which she'd never known Kabuto capable of performing. It hit her so hard that she staggered back through the gaping hole in the wall where the door used to be and landed against the opposite wall in the hallway. Kabuto advanced.
The song was as thick as honey on Sakura's skin, making her sweat and pushing her down to dark depths from which she was sure there was no emerging. Her breath came in short bursts, her eyes dilated. Clammy hands slipped along the insides of her gloves. And Kabuto just smiled, his lips moving as soundless words poured out. Sakura strained her hearing to make them out over the elegiac tune.
"...pathetic... To think..."
Sakura focused the chakra she'd gathered just as Kabuto instigated the genjutsu to her ears and picked herself up. The wall behind her, soft, stuck to her skin and gave under slight pressure. The stone floor under her boots, similarly sticky, undulated underfoot and she began to sink. Still, Sakura ignored impending doom and rising panic to focus on Kabuto's voice through the ringing in her ears.
"Don't worry, I won't kill you. My experiments work better on live subjects," Kabuto said.
Sakura bellowed a battle cry and launched off the wall with all her might. She ran straight for Kabuto and barreled into him. She buried a chakra scalpel in the side of his neck, but within the illusion it wouldn't kill him.
"Bitch!"
Sakura stumbled on the semi-solid floor, and Kabuto ambled around to face her, a hand on his neck where no trace of Sakura's attack remained. His feet began to sink.
"Impossible."
"I can't break this genjutsu fast enough to protect myself from you," Sakura said, panting. "But I can drag you in here with me."
"How?" He shifted his feet and pulled up sticky matter as he sank deeper.
Sakura, also sinking, tried to ignore the sensation and trust her intuition. "It was your own fault. Sound-based genjutsu are the most effective." She smirked at his mounting anger. "But only if there's no outside sound to interrupt them. Pity, Kabuto."
The genjutsu continued to bear down on both of them, and Kabuto didn't have a mind to draw it out. With no other option, he released the illusion and sucked the young woman back into his stomach as though she'd never been there at all. Sakura heaved a breath of fresh air now that the world was no longer spinning and she wasn't plastered to the walls. She wiped her brow, sweating even with her hair tied back in a ponytail.
"Clever, very clever. Although, I always recognized your strength. I'm not surprised."
"You fight with stolen power. You wouldn't recognize strength if it slapped you in the face, coward."
Kabuto's lone, golden eye danced with unheard laughter. Sakura put out a hand in a defensive stance, ready to pick this up again. There was no way she was waiting for him to regurgitate another stolen presence from within. She broke into a run and powered up her chakra for a punch that would tear him in two and end this. Kabuto didn't dodge, and Sakura let him have it over the scaly mass covering his abdomen.
Pain exploded in her hand and she staggered backward, stunned and shaking in agony. Kabuto wobbled on his feet, but he remained upright. Sakura clutched her misshapen fist to her chest, already working on healing it, when she noticed something different about Kabuto. She'd thought they were scales on his abdomen, but upon closer inspection, they were much more variegated, smooth in places and jagged in others. Not scales at all, but bones.
Kabuto raised his arms and grinned. "Do you like it? It's my ultimate defense, courtesy of Sasuke's predecessor, Kimimaro. The boy was a useless cripple in the end, but his bloodline limit, well, that was quite something. He was the only one of his kind. Shame to let such a useful gift go to waste, don't you think?"
Sakura forced back the tears that had threatened to fall due to the agony in her fist and the painstaking process of healing it. It felt and looked like it had passed through a meat grinder. The bone armor grew to encompass Kabuto's chest and shoulders, his hands, even his face until only his eyes showed through slits in the calcified helmet he now wore. Sharp bones protruded from his neck, shoulders, and joints, menacing with an undead presence all their own. Sakura vaguely remembered Lee telling her about Kimimaro when he went to retrieve Sasuke some years ago, about how Kimimaro's bones were denser than any metal or rock and how even Gaara's sand couldn't stop them. If Kabuto had that power, her strategy was history.
"What's the matter? I thought you would show me no mercy?"
Kabuto dashed toward her so fast she didn't even see it coming. His left arm, transformed into a bone club, rammed her middle and sent her flying back into the hallway. She hit the wall hard at an angle and rolled to the floor, skidding several yards before landing in a heap of hurt. Gagging, Sakura forced her eyes to remain open despite the black spots clouding her vision. She clutched her shattered ribcage, already beginning the arduous healing process. Her shoulder would have to wait for now. Kabuto's heavy footsteps sounded from his lab. He was emerging, ready to hunt her down like an animal. Sakura stifled a cry and rose on quaking feet. Casting a glance back over her shoulder, she began to jog down the hall away from him in search of time to pull herself back together.
Behind her, Kabuto's armored footsteps followed at a sedate pace. "You can run all you like, but I'll find you."
"Son of a bitch," Sakura spat as she rounded a corner.
She passed by the corpse of that Sound shinobi she'd killed earlier on her way down here, but she pressed onward without so much as a look in its direction. Her old cell was up ahead, and knowing it was empty, she stumbled through the doorframe and worked to finish healing herself as fast as she could. Kabuto had done a number on her ribcage, but broken bones were an easy fix so long as she could stomach the pain. More worrisome than her injuries was the lack of time.
Smash!
Sakura rolled just in time to avoid another armored punch as Kabuto came sailing through the rock wall from the next cell over. She sprinted back into the hallway, cursing him silently. Intermittent booming echoed all around, and she chanced a glance up. The ceiling was shedding dust with each explosion.
"Oh Sakura!" Kabuto called after her. He was gaining.
Sakura finished healing her ribs, but she doubted Kabuto would give her the luxury of finishing her shoulder. There was little time left, and she would damn well use it to her advantage. Skidding to a halt, she took a calming breath and set her jaw. Kabuto's footsteps slowed to a halt a ways behind her.
"Giving up already? Let's end this."
"You know, Kabuto," Sakura said, her back to him. "You may have stolen Orochimaru's cells, but he never wasted his time training you the way Tsunade-sama trained me."
Kabuto burst out laughing, muffled by his bone helmet. "Look who's gotten a big mouth lately! And you're wrong, by the way. I'm the closest person to Orochimaru, and only I know his true secrets. It won't be long before I surpass him."
Sakura smirked and cracked her knuckles. "See, that's just the problem." Nearly eighteen years of life and countless battles, tireless practice, and a will never to give up had compounded up until this day. All that power had to go somewhere, sometime. "I've already surpassed Tsunade-sama."
Kabuto held his ground, and Sakura faced him. He shielded his eyes when a fulgent light flashed, dazzling. Eighteen years of hard work, of failure and defeat, blood and sweat, and the most important victory she'd ever earned had led her here. Gone was the pain, the sense of urgency, and the revulsion she felt just looking upon Kabuto. There was only the will to win at all costs that had always been there, waiting and patient.
"Tsunade's Yin seal," Kabuto said, the venom gone from his tone as he marveled at the sight before him.
A green diamond mark illuminated the forehead Sakura had learned to love as she grew older. She smacked her fist against her open palm, and the stone floor under her feet cracked and dented under the force of the energy sparking around her. "Like I said, she was thorough in her teachings."
Even behind the eye slit in his bone helmet, Kabuto's flash of genuine fear was unmistakeable. Like a drug, that look filled Sakura with adrenaline and euphoria at the prospect that yes, she could hurt him. She could make him squirm, just as he'd made her squirm and bleed and suffer all those nights long ago in this very base. He would feel every second of it, and damn if the thought didn't make her feel truly invincible.
She ran at him, fist glowing, as he moved to defend rather than flee just as he'd done before. But this was not like before, and Sakura was not about to let him rule her again. She roared and slammed her fist through the bone club he'd formed over his arm, shattering it entirely. Kabuto had no time to react when her fist next connected with his armored abdomen. As though it were mere glass, the super-densified bone cracked and gave under her might until she tasted his scaly flesh, the taut muscle underneath, and warm blood. Kabuto gagged and lifted off his feet as Sakura's momentum caught up to him, and he went flying through four solid stone walls.
An explosion of dust and cracked stone clouded Sakura's vision as she retracted her soiled fist and wiped it on her red shirt. She wasted no time in going after Kabuto, who'd ended up several rooms over and landed on a now destroyed cot. The wall behind him was in bad shape, but it had held. He was bleeding, and his bone armor was disintegrating. The helmet receded to reveal his face, contorted in fury and pain. But just as he'd done in their last battle at the Tenchi Bridge, Kabuto's warped body was already healing itself as though it had expected this sort of brutality from her.
Sakura towered over him. "I think you said something about ending this?"
Kabuto struggled to stand and held his tender stomach. He spat blood and met her gaze. His mismatched eyes saw through her, like she wasn't there at all, and he lunged, wielding two chakra scalpels with renewed vigor. Sakura rushed to meet him, and they clashed again.
Karin woke him before the shouting started.
"Sasuke, we have to go," she said, pulling her lavender jacket on. "They're here."
Scarred arms bared to him under a black tank top disappeared as she zipped her jacket up. Sasuke rubbed his eyes, slowly coming around from what had amounted to too little sleep for what lay ahead. He quickly dressed and retrieved Kusanagi just as Suigetsu and Juugo burst through the door.
"Dude, the Sound guys're pissing themselves tryna get outside," Suigetsu said.
"The ones Orochimaru talked about are here," Juugo said, lurid eyes narrowed as he stared at a point on the ceiling as though he could see through it. Red energy tendrils began to creep from beneath his shirt collar.
Sasuke put a hand on his shoulder. "Follow my lead, Juugo."
Juugo blinked and his curse began to recede as his eyes focused on Sasuke. He nodded.
"Oh, shit," Karin said.
Sasuke shot her a look, and Suigetsu poked her in the shoulder. "Oi, what's goin' on up there? Spit it out, already."
"There are so many of them," she said, not even acknowledging Suigetsu's prodding. "It's like an army, but they're all connected to one person. I've never felt anything like it."
"The puppet technique. That's Sasori's signature," Sasuke said. "But he's not our problem."
A loud explosion resounded somewhere above ground, and Suigetsu ducked behind Sasuke. "What the hell, man?"
Sasuke set his jaw. Deidara. "Let's go."
Team Taka took off at a sprint toward the base's entrance. Every few seconds, more explosions detonated, most of them far away, and Sasuke had to wonder what Deidara's plan was. It would have been easier to blow up the base itself and everyone in it, but when Sasuke caught sight of a flash of pink at the end of the hallway barreling deep into the heart of the base, he had his answer.
"That was your old teammate," Karin said as they neared the intersection where Sakura had raced by, oblivious to Taka's presence.
"Bet she's going after Kabuto," Suigetsu said, taking note of the direction in which Sakura had gone—toward the medical wing. "You know, I get that we're s'posed to be helping Orochimaru, but I hope she beats that four-eyed freak's ass into the ground. And I mean that in the most literal way possible."
Sasuke said nothing as he led his team above ground. Sakura could take care of herself, that much he'd witnessed during her last internment here. Deidara was the more pressing issue, and Sasuke had some questions for the psychotic artist.
Outside, chaos had broken out. Orochimaru was directing Sound forces from on high, and the source of Karin's earlier assessment became clear at the sight of an army of puppets tearing them down. There were so many that Sasuke couldn't hope to count them all, but he knew Sasori had to be at the center of them. Not for the first time, he thanked his sense of self-preservation for not engaging Sasori when he'd come for Sakura here a long year ago.
As she was wont to do, Karin reminded Sasuke of the reason they were all here. "It's Deidara. He's over there!"
As if on cue, a bomb detonated in the distance. Shouts of agony followed. At this rate, Sasori and Deidara would pare down Sound's forces to nil unless someone intervened.
"Hey, Fearless Leader," Suigetsu said, brandishing Kubikiribouchou. "This time, we take him out together, got it?"
A smokestack rose in the distance, and Sasuke led his team toward it without hesitation. "Got it."
Overhead, the moon cast a thick light over the internecine happening all around them. It didn't take long to catch up with Deidara. Bodies lay all around him. What was left, anyway. Blood smoked, aflame, as incendiary bombs slowly consumed it. Human tissue, tendons and flayed flesh and brain matter, lay in disarray, a buffet for the ruthless killer here to send a message or maybe just have a little fun. Sound shinobi in various states of life and death fled the scene. All the while, Deidara was silent at the center of it all. There was no peep of laughter or joy, and Sasuke repressed an involuntary shiver at the eerie silence so out of place on the madman.
"If we didn't have to kill the guy, I'd probably admire him," Suigetsu said, sniffling as he stepped over offal and entrails.
"You're disgusting," Karin said, covering her nose.
"Deidara," Sasuke said, approaching.
Deidara had his back to Taka. There was no sick cachinnation, no platitudes of beauty and perfection and higher ideals. There was nothing, and though he would never, ever admit it aloud, Deidara's tranquility at the epicenter of destruction chilled Sasuke to the bone.
"Was wonderin' when you'd crawl outta your hole, yeah," Deidara drawled.
Sasuke kept his expression carefully schooled. "You're supposed to be dead."
"And you were s'posed to kill Itachi, last I heard. Couldn't even do that right, huh?"
Deidara cast Taka a glance over his shoulder, and Sasuke hesitated. There was something distinctly cold about that look, something forsaken, like this was the end of the line and he had absolutely nothing to lose anymore.
"You were supposed to stay dead." Sasuke put an arm out to block Juugo from advancing.
"Y'know, that's your problem, Sasuke. You rely too much on those eyes and you miss what's right in front of you, yeah."
"What's right in front of me is a dead man walking." Sasuke drew Kusanagi and crouched in a fighting stance. "This time, I'll finish the job."
Deidara chuckled and clenched a fist. In a matter of seconds, he'd produced a clay bird that grew big enough to mount. He boarded it and took to the sky. "We'll see about that."
Deidara rose higher in the sky, out of reach, and Sasuke followed him with his eyes. He bit down on his thumb and activated the summoning technique. Out of a puff of smoke, a giant hawk appeared and squawked angrily. Upon seeing Sasuke, it hunched over so he could climb atop it.
"Whoa, hey, what about us?" Suigetsu said.
"I don't like this, Sasuke," Juugo said. "He's flying on purpose."
"I know that. I'm just going to ground him. The plan stays the same."
"Sasuke," Karin said.
They locked eyes. She set her jaw.
"He's plotting something. Don't get cocky," she warned him.
"I'll be fine."
Karin did not look pleased, but Sasuke took off into the air and ignored her trepidation. He could feel her eyes on his back as he rose, boring her warning through his thick skull. Of course Deidara was plotting something. The problem was figuring out what. With Taka behind him, Sasuke could take the chance of finding out.
"So, the runt grew wings, eh?" Deidara taunted.
"How did you survive? I barely did."
Deidara shrugged. "I didn't. That's the big secret."
Sasuke didn't have time to be confused because Deidara began their battle without warning. Four clay birds flew at him, tiny and buzzing, and Sasuke summoned his Lightning Release to counter them. A thick bolt of lightning extended from Kusanagi and slashed through the onslaught, detonating the avian bombs a short distance away. He felt their heat on his face as they exploded. And through the smoke, Deidara himself flew at him.
Sasuke's hawk summon shrieked and beat its wings to face forward. Talons dug into Deidara's clay bird, ripping it apart. Deidara punched the air in front of Sasuke's face, setting off a chain of explosions out of thin air. They hit Sasuke square in the chest, knocking the wind out of him and cracking a couple ribs. But a quick Chidori Current saved him from the brunt of the attack, and fighting through the pain, Sasuke swung Kusanagi at Deidara. The blade connected with soft flesh, slashing Deidara in the chest and sending him falling backward.
Somewhere below, Sasuke heard someone shouting his name, but he ignored it. He concentrated his chakra and powered up the Mangekyou Sharingan, intending to launch a genjutsu at Deidara while regrouping. But Deidara pulled away, panting, and held Sasuke's gaze.
"You really don't listen, huh? I fucking taught myself how to break your stupid genjutsu. Even Itachi's can't work on me!"
"Impossible."
"Well, you better believe it, punk!"
Sasuke released his genjutsu, but Deidara plowed right through it. Only Chidori Current saved him from the bombs Deidara sent his way, and he suffered in the process of electrocuting himself over and over.
"Sasuke!" Karin shouted from below.
"I won't let him fight alone," Juugo said.
Juugo's curse awakened, covering him in flaming tendrils until it blotted out every inch of him. Red eyes turned yellow, his hair grew, and his flesh darkened with chakra. Karin and Suigetsu gave him some space, wary of Juugo in this mode. Juugo bellowed and launched a blast of chakra into the air, aiming for Deidara.
"Die!" he bellowed.
"Do something!" Karin screamed at Suigetsu. "He could hit Sasuke!"
"Way ahead of you."
Suigetsu liquefied his lower half and rose high into the air on a water spout. Kubikiribouchou extended ahead of him as he made a beeline for Deidara.
Meanwhile, Deidara noticed Juugo's attack and managed to save himself barely in time. Half his bird was blown to smithereens, but quick action rebuilt it in midair.
"What, afraid to fight me alone?" he said.
Sasuke gritted his teeth. "I'm never alone!"
Suigetsu materialized in between Sasuke and Deidara and took a swing at Deidara, who barely avoided the blow. Deidara threw more bombs at Suigetsu. Sasuke swore and jumped. Chidori sparked across Kusanagi's blade. He stabbed through Suigetsu's enchanted water and electrified it, nullifying Deidara's bombs but wounding Suigetsu in the process.
"Aaahhh!"
Suigetsu convulsed, but somehow he mustered the strength of will to launch a thick column of electrified water at Deidara in a last-ditch effort. It hit Deidara in the chest, launching him backward. Sasuke reached for Suigetsu's hand and brushed his fingers, but he was too late. His teammate fell to the ground with a violent splash. Kubikiribouchou landed in the earth a short distance away. The last thing Sasuke saw was Karin rushing to help Suigetsu.
"Electrocuting your own teammate to hit me," Deidara said, having collected himself as best he could. His skin was smoking and sparking as reddened boils began to pebble and fill with pous on his chest, and he was bleeding from the mouth. "You really are Itachi's little brother, yeah."
"You know nothing about my brother," Sasuke bit out.
Deidara coughed laughing. "That's rich coming from you, of all people. D'you even know what he did for you? Fuckin' sap, yeah."
Sasuke paled, and Deidara's grin widened.
"Heh, shoulda figured that two-face Tobi would tell you. All part of his grand ol' master plan, I bet."
"What do you think you know?" Sasuke demanded.
"I know you're makin' the same mistake Itachi made before you. Think your Sharingan can beat anything, right? Well, you're wrong. And you'll be sorry now, punk."
Deidara held out both hands as though he were hiding something, and Sasuke gripped Kusanagi harder.
"See, your problem hasn't changed. You're so busy thinkin' about what's coming next that you don't think about what's happening now. You should know by now, Uchiha Sasuke. It's all just a game, yeah."
Understanding dawned all too late, and Deidara released the thing he was holding, the thing he'd been storing chakra to create. There was no time, never any time. Even when Sasuke had thought he was doing right by his family, he was killing what little was left of it. Foolish little brother. Sasuke was sure he would die a fool.
But not today. Not when he could do something, when he could make the right choice and for once in his life be selfish for himself, not for the weight of a thousand ghosts on his shoulders. So he jumped. He jumped after Deidara's falling C3 bomb as it raced toward Juugo, Suigetsu, and Karin. The last people in the world who had bothered to care, who nurtured his secrets and his weaknesses, his tears, who would fight his fights simply because he asked them to, simply because he needed them, the only ones who could truly understand.
"Karin, I need you."
Now, more than ever.
"Karin!" he screamed as he fell.
She met his eyes, red on terrible red, just before the world went up in flames.
Orochimaru had seen Sasori's army perform once before. It was a mission they'd taken shortly before the incident with Itachi and Orochimaru's defection from Akatsuki, the last one they would ever undertake together. They were to erase a city, obliterate it from existence. Something about not paying Akatsuki's tithe. He couldn't remember the details because he hadn't asked. And after it was done, no one and nothing was left to explain why.
After so much death and so many people in the way, Orochimaru had started to tune it all out. Drivel and drear, like too many rainy afternoons and no point in lighting a fire that would just pitter out, anyway. No heat could penetrate the numbness. Unless the fire was great enough to melt the rain.
They say fire roars, like a beast forever insatiable, consuming until it can take in no more, but it can always take in more. But they're wrong. Sasori's army did not scream, did not shout or cry. It didn't roar, and neither did the Sound shinobi it swallowed whole. Slick blades, sharp enough to cut without pain, carved out a feast for themselves by the dozens. There was no time to scream, no time to cry, no time at all. Greedy little leech, he always did want to hoard it all for himself. But that was why he was the only one left out of the hundreds Orochimaru had toyed with before him.
A game needs players.
Orochimaru's hand twitched as he looked on at the slaughter. Some puppets fell, but for every one that did, two or three Sound shinobi joined it. As greedy as he was with time, Sasori was never one to waste a moment of it. Perhaps Kabuto had had a point when he'd warned Orochimaru about letting Sasori live.
"How long will the king stand by and watch as his kingdom crumbles to dust?"
Sasori's voice cut through the dull din of the fighting, but he didn't shout. There was no need in the almost silence between Deidara's distant bombing. Puppets flanked him, guarded him, as he stared up at Orochimaru, and still the front guard continued to cut down the Sound shinobi in their paths, as though functioning on their own.
Orochimaru chuckled, low and deep, and when it escalated he let it. He threw back his head and clutched his aching belly as the guffaws tumbled out of him and filled the spaces between Sasori's blades and the blood of Orochimaru's underlings.
"Impatient as ever, old friend!" Orochimaru said. "But just this once, I'll indulge you."
Orochimaru grinned wide at the unguarded hesitation in Sasori's spiteful gaze as he jumped from the roof of the base to join his Sound forces. Madara remained in the shadows, ever the silent observer. Orochimaru landed on the ground in a crouch amidst his bleeding shinobi army. He brought both thumbs to his mouth and bit down hard enough to draw blood from the both of them. And then, he rose and yanked back the collar of his nearest underling, a scraggly kunoichi with a mean look and a few teeth missing.
She gaped in surprise at the sudden manhandling by her fearsome leader, no less, but Orochimaru ignored her sputtering and spun her around. He pressed his bleeding thumbs into her eyes and squeezed. Hard. She screamed like a banshee as the soft tissue of her eyes turned to jelly under Orochimaru's digging fingers.
"Shh, shh," he shushed her, licking his lips.
Beyond, Sasori had maneuvered his puppets to part and clear a path for him to get to Orochimaru. They locked eyes briefly.
I want you to see this, you desperate little worm.
The kunoichi convulsed in Orochimaru's grasp, giving under the agony of his mutilation and wandering chakra. He leaned in close to her mouth and whispered:
"Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei."
Somewhere, far away, Sasori shouted Orochimaru's name. But it disappeared amidst the bone-crunching and blood-curdling as the impossible became possible. The kunoichi Orochimaru had cornered opened her mouth wider than any human could in a scream as her body contorted, changed before his eyes. No one was meant to survive this technique, but death is the first step toward immortality.
"I told you I'd have you one day," Orochimaru crooned.
Bleeding eyes swiveled in their sockets, no longer bleeding but simply red, like the blood had long been a part of them and had never left. The kunoichi's emaciated frame filled out with lean muscle and hard angles, and she grew taller. Too tall to be recognizable as herself anymore. She was gone, not a trace of her left. In her place, another now stood.
Orochimaru leaned back and surveyed his handiwork. "Uchiha Itachi. Welcome back."
Sasori froze at the sight that manifested before him. Here was the culmination of Orochimaru's hard work and scheming, stolen secrets no doubt twisted for his cruel purposes. Itachi, one of the few people Sasori could have ever called 'friend', now stood before him on the brink of crumbling to dust but holding on. But then, Itachi had always been venomously fragile, poison ivy waiting for the unwitting fool who dared venture too close.
"Sasori," Itachi said in that sad tone he'd always had. Sad, but not broken. He was always a good liar. "You're alive."
"Obviously," Sasori said, maneuvering some of his puppets into position.
"I'm glad."
Orochimaru stepped forward. "Sorry to cut the reunion short, but I do know how you hate to wait, Sasori."
He flew through a few hand seals, and Itachi jerked as though electrocuted. His pale skin flaked, like he might come apart at any moment, but it passed. When Itachi's Sharingan met Sasori's gaze once more, something had changed. That wasn't Itachi anymore.
Orochimaru bared his teeth in a smirk. "Now, let me indulge you."
Itachi lunged without warning, and the battle began anew. It wasn't long before black fire licked at Sasori's wooden and human puppets, catching like a second skin and growing too fast, too hot. Sasori leaped backward to avoid the conflagration and salvage the puppets he had left.
"Itachi!" he shouted.
But Itachi didn't speak, didn't see. Not anymore. All he could do was cut and burn and kill, all in silence. Sasori threw his puppets in Itachi's path to hold him off, but they did little to stop him. He retreated and began to think of the myriad backup plans he'd prepared for just this turn of events.
Itachi cut through Sasori's puppet army, burning anything that got in his way, all with the end-goal of closing in on Sasori himself. And he did. Itachi was fast, and he hit hard. Sasori lunged backward, and Itachi's punches followed. They tore through the puppets with fire and frenzy, merciless, until Sasori was the only one standing before Itachi's relentless assault. He had always been adept at taijutsu, having forced himself to hone the skill from a young age knowing his preference for distance fighting would always put him at a severe disadvantage hand-to-hand, but Itachi was a legend for a reason. Sasori quickly found himself falling back on the defensive as he parried Itachi's vicious attacks.
Black fire roared around them, and Sasori had to watch his step to avoid the heat. Itachi jabbed and punched and kicked, unbothered and never tiring, like a machine. Puppets jumped to Sasori's aid, colliding with Itachi and maintaining some distance between the fighters. Sasori snuck a quick glance over Itachi's shoulder at Orochimaru, who was not far behind and preparing to enter the battle himself. Two on one would be impossible when the two were an undead Uchiha Itachi and a legendary Sannin. But as with every other impossible scenario involving Orochimaru's strategy, Sasori's paranoia had accounted for this one, too.
An explosion loud enough to draw blood from ears racked the earth all of a sudden, throwing off everyone's momentum. Somewhere in the distance, Deidara had set off something terrible, and just at the most inopportune time.
Damn idiot!
Sasori didn't have time to dwell on the thought, though, because unlike him, Itachi was not tethered to the land of the living and so did not suffer mortality's limitations. The bomb's echo didn't reach him, and it was that split second that made all the difference. Baleful red eyes found Sasori's gaze for just one horrifying second, but with the Sharingan, one second was all it took. Sasori's mouth went slack as the world, sight and sound and touch, faded away like water down a drain, leaving only blood and darkness and the two of them.
Itachi was no longer moving as he stared up at Sasori, who found himself chained to a wooden post. His puppets were gone, and so was Orochimaru. Only the moon remained, big and bright and red.
"Tsukuyomi," Sasori said, understanding. "The unbreakable genjutsu."
Itachi said nothing as he drew a sword. The movement was mechanical, enough to strike terror in the hearts of even the bravest men.
Sasori sneered down at his would-be executioner. "I know you can hear me in there. Itachi!"
Itachi lifted his sword and rammed it through Sasori's stomach unflinchingly. Sasori heaved in agony, the shock of the abuse coursing through his veins like fire. His throat clenched around a scream, keeping it in even as Itachi withdrew his blade and adjusted the angle, plunging it in again. Honey eyes glared down at his illusionary torturer, counting the sword thrusts like seconds on a ticking clock until the three dream days would be up.
The seconds that separated Deidara's falling bomb and Taka flew with Sasuke as he fell to the ground, reaching. He thought he heard Karin scream his name over the roar of blood in his ears, but he couldn't be certain. A fever boiled his brain and clouded his vision with red, so much red, red like her wild hair and those eyes that could see things in worlds beyond this one.
The light was the worst part. A scintillating flash preceded that soul-shattering explosion and the fires it summoned, so bright and blinding that it cut right through Sasuke. It drowned out the moon and the stars until all that was left was the wind scraping his bare arms as he fell. He reached for Karin, who reached out to him in turn. But the hand that held her as sight abandoned Sasuke was not his.
As soon as the light burned him to his core, it was gone. In its wake was an eerie, violet glow that cast a veil over the world and around Taka. Karin's hands over Sasuke's ears were the first thing he felt. And then came the chill.
"Sasuke!" she said, trying to get him to focus.
He lay in a heap in her arms. Her thumbs wiped tears from his eyes, but they came away red.
"Damnit, Sasuke," she said, adjusting him so he could sit up. "You fucking idiot."
Suigetsu, who had nearly reformed, didn't even glance at them as he examined the forcefield boxing them in together. "Fucking shit on a stick... What is this?"
"Don't touch it," Juugo said, doubled over in pain from his injuries caused by the bombing.
Sasuke blinked the blood from his eyes and sat up fully with Karin's assistance. All around them, the purple energy glowed and crackled. It had taken the shape of a humanoid creature, lumbering and skeletal. Its thick ribs were what surrounded Taka now, and its meaty hands dug into the earth.
"Susano'o," Sasuke said. He touched a hand to his eyes and it came away bloody. "Itachi."
"Dude, not that I'm not happy to be alive, but don't think for one second I'm lettin' you off the hook for electrocuting me, you stupid son of a bitch," Suigetsu snarled as he struggled to stand up. He was still sparking in places, and his hair was a frazzled mess.
"Sasuke, you saved us," Karin said, her face still contorted in anger at his recklessness. But she held onto his arms, steady and strong.
He met her gaze, remembering the last time she'd gone out of her way to do the same for him. She hadn't wavered then, either. "Yeah," he said.
Clapping drew Taka's attention. On the other side, Deidara had landed and was watching them through Susano'o's ghostly armor a safe distance away.
"So I guess there's actually somethin' you care about aside from Itachi, yeah," Deidara said.
Sasuke struggled to his feet with Karin's help and released Susano'o. Juugo's curse had receded, and he joined his teammates as the four of them prepared to face Deidara anew. Nearer to the base, more explosions detonated in time, like dominoes slowly falling. More of Deidara's handiwork, if Sasuke had to guess.
"Oh man I wanna kick this guy's ass," Suigetsu said, baring his filed teeth.
Sasuke was ready to oblige his bloodthirsty teammate when Karin stiffened beside him.
"Oh my god, it can't be," she said, breathless.
"What is it, Karin?" Juugo asked.
She covered her mouth and looked back toward the Sound base. "It's Itachi. He's here."
Sasuke's mouth ran dry as he thought about what that meant. "Edo Tensei."
"Oi, oi! I'm still here, y'know!" Deidara said.
"Suigetsu, feel free to deal with Deidara however you want. Karin, take me to Itachi now."
Suigetsu cracked his knuckles. "Don't gotta tell me twice."
"Hey!" Deidara shouted. "You're not walkin' away from me again, yeah."
Sasuke showed Deidara his back. "Watch me."
But he didn't even make it two steps.
"You really are trash," Deidara spat.
Sasuke froze as memories of another loud, annoying person in his life calling him those exact words behind these same walls resurfaced.
"You trash."
He'd had his back to Sakura back then, just as he had his back to Deidara now. And like back then, Sasuke had nothing to say to the accusation, no words to refute it. He hadn't been sure then that it wasn't true, and he wasn't sure now.
"And trash doesn't deserve a place in this world," Deidara said. "Goodbye, Uchiha Sasuke."
Sasuke turned but lost his footing as pain exploded in his feet, his legs, and coursed through his body to the fingertips. It was like plunging into freezing water, a full-body shock on impact, and at the first submerged breath, he could only take in razor blades. He crumpled to the ground as whatever had awakened inside him slashed free in a million tiny lacerations, bleeding him out and grinding his bones to dust.
Deidara hadn't moved, but he held his signature release hand seal in place. "You seriously underestimated me last time, yeah."
Karin wailed and pulled at her hair as she watched it all happen. A billion explosions, microscopic, thundered through Sasuke's body. Tiny pinpricks of light that hadn't been there before, dormant until just now, until it was too late. They churned him up inside, and all she could do was watch it happen in stark detail with those wretched, all-seeing eyes.
"Sasuke!" she screamed.
But he couldn't hear her anymore.
The blink of an eye, three days, dream and reality. Everything blended together. All Sasori had was the countdown, like waiting for sleep to grace him with a visit now that he needed it again after so many years. There were nights when he forgot how. The first time he'd slept again after waking up in his human body, he'd woken up thinking he was dying. Dreams were such dreadful things. Uncontrollable hallucinations with the power to unearth secrets better left buried. But dreams were all he had left to pass the time as Itachi stabbed him again and again and again.
At some point, the pain had stopped bothering him. Not that pain had ever really bothered him. Sometimes it was necessary. The Third Kazekage had taught him that there were worse things than death, that men were most creative wielding pain above all else. He was wrong. There was nothing worse than death. Nothing but the wait. Waiting on time. Bored. Sasori laughed out loud as Itachi withdrew his sword with a squelch.
"As if you could kill time without injuring eternity," he muttered, half mad or half lucid, depending on your perspective.
Itachi said nothing and shoved the knife in again.
Eight hundred and twenty-two, eight hundred and twenty-three, eight hundred and twenty-four.
"You know," Sasori said, eyes glazed as he watched Itachi move in a steady rhythm, "I never did tell you my secret."
One thousand forty, one thousand forty-one.
"To become immortal, you have to die first." Blood dripped from his lips as he parted them in a grin. "I've died in every way a man can die."
He tried to remember how long he'd been in here. Was the end near, or was the beginning far off?
"But then, I guess we have that in common."
The sword plunged deep to the hilt, but this time Itachi didn't pull it out. He met Sasori's gaze, empty and unseeing. Glass.
"Why is that the only way you can see the world?"
Sasori let his head fall. Her words haunted him the most in his dreams.
How pointless.
"Time's up," Itachi said.
"Yes," Sasori said as the color came back to the world and the pain receded, leaving only the vivid memories. "It is."
He snapped his head up and moved as the last vestiges of Itachi's genjutsu faded. Only a moment had passed in the real world, and time was of the essence. Itachi faltered in the wake of such a massive chakra output, even in his reanimated state. Sasori reached for him, releasing the puppets around him and focusing all his energy on Itachi. In arm's reach, he was close enough to guarantee the success of this strategy.
Chakra threads wrapped around Itachi's neck and face and crawled into his ears, his eyes, his nose and mouth. Itachi tore at them, ripping his skin but to no avail; it flaked and reformed, like sand under wind. A short distance away, Orochimaru skidded to a halt.
"Sasori!" he shouted, ugly and full of hatred.
"Now," Sasori said, fighting to remain standing on shaking legs after the number Itachi's genjutsu had done on him. "Wake up."
The chakra strings pulsated with a burst of energy, and Itachi choked. His eyes rolled back in their sockets, and he let out an inhuman garble before sinking to his knees. Sasori sank with him, but he didn't release his hold.
"No!" Orochimaru was running toward them again.
After a few moments, Sasori let the threads slacken and fall. Itachi's head hung as he shook slightly, eyes unfocused. With the last of the threads releasing him, he managed to look up.
"Sasori," he said, eyes wide and wondering.
"Welcome back," Sasori said, wiping his brow.
Itachi looked him over. "The genjutsu... I'm truly sorry."
Nearby, Sasori's unattended puppets fell prey to Itachi's rampant Amaterasu, which continued to spread. Sasori cast the black flames a cursory glance and frowned.
"You can't get something for nothing," he said hoarsely.
"You knew... But why? You could have died. Many have."
"I've filled my quota for death already. Help me up."
Itachi helped him stand without argument, and Sasori took a moment to steady himself. The phantom pain was just that, but it had been so real and so prolonged that separating dream from reality was no easy task. His hands shook.
"Your brother is here," Sasori said. "So is that pretender, Madara."
Itachi's expression hardened. "I see. You planned for everything."
Sasori reached behind his back and produced a thick scroll, one he'd been careful to save from Orochimaru's surprise attack on the castle stronghold. He unrolled it and bit his thumb for the summoning. A bloody streak painted across the kanji for 'Devil's Fire'.
"I never sacrifice my best pieces," Sasori said.
Orochimaru stopped short of his former Akatsuki colleagues, wary now that Itachi was no longer under his mind control thanks to Sasori's meddling. The scroll popped and revealed Sasori's newest puppet draped in black. Coveted Sharingan eyes, perfectly preserved and glowing red with chakra, stared back at Orochimaru.
"Well, well, I suppose even you weren't immune to the Sharingan's allure," he spat. "I should've known."
The human puppet carved from Itachi's corpse turned away from Orochimaru and gazed at the black fire decimating the area. Sasori channeled chakra to the puppet, and its eyes transformed into the Mangekyo Sharingan. The ghastly fires began to shrink, no longer out of control.
"You figured it out," Itachi said, incredulous.
"I told you, it was all in your head."
"Enough of this!" Orochimaru bellowed. "Sasori, it's just you and me now. Your army has fallen and so has mine. Let's end this once and for all."
"I couldn't agree more."
Itachi looked between the two of them and put a hand on Sasori's shoulder. "Thank you...for everything."
Sasori nodded, and Itachi ran off to find Sasuke and Madara. Nimble fingers redirected the puppet Itachi for the battle that would end everything.
"I can see it, you know," Orochimaru said. "You're still that same, scared little boy hiding behind his puppets. I always was the better shinobi."
"You're wrong, Orochimaru. Look around. You're a king of ashes and smoke. You stand alone before me. I've taken all your pieces and smashed them."
Orochimaru's eyes narrowed to slits and he lunged. "Sasori!"
Sasori ran to meet him with his puppet, redirecting the black fires to do his bidding.
Sakura ran through the Sound base after Kabuto, their game of chase suddenly reversed now that his bone armor couldn't protect him from her super punches. But he was clever and had taken to sneak attacks as she destroyed everything in her path. Bleeding from her side, Sakura trailed blood as she closed in on him and swooped in for a hard punch to the sternum. Kabuto's injuries were extensive despite his accelerated healing powers, and he was too slow to dodge. They crashed into a wall together.
Heavy rubble fell all around them and forced the air out of Sakura's lungs. She heaved and scrambled to push away from Kabuto. He wriggled out of the destruction and stumbled backward through the now decimated wall. Chakra shone through the various lacerations in his body, healing him as he panted to recuperate.
"So what, then? We'll be at this forever so long as we can both heal automatically," Kabuto said.
"Then I'll smash a hole through your face. Try recovering from that."
"But you know," Kabuto went on, ignoring her taunt, "just because you can heal yourself doesn't mean your teammates can. Orochimaru-sama has so much planned for Sasori, but he's all alone up there."
Sakura bristled. "Sasori's not alone. Deidara and I are here with him. He won't die so easily, you can bet on that."
"Are you so sure? He is only human, after all. You're a smart girl, Sakura. You know as well as I do that the two of them are living in a delusion, thinking they can truly become immortal. One of them will die here tonight, if they don't end up killing each other. And we all die alone."
"Shut up, you don't know anything about it!"
Sakura lunged again, and Kabuto backpedaled to avoid her deadly punches.
"I know there's no such thing as eternity. We all die!"
Sakura crashed into another wall when Kabuto dodged at the last second, flying into the next room. Kabuto followed and kicked her hard in the side. She grunted in pain and reached for his ankle, pulling him down and crushing it with all the strength she could muster. Kabuto wailed, his leg totally useless now as he fell into a heap. They lay there a moment panting and in pain.
"We all die," Kabuto repeated. "Them, and us, too."
"You're wrong. I already died once. I won't die again."
Kabuto burst out laughing, no longer bothering to get away from her with his bum leg. "Now there's an idea. Too bad you won't survive this to test that theory."
Booming in the distance drew Sakura's attention. Bombs detonated one after the other in a steady rhythm, drawing closer and louder. She bit her tongue and tasted blood. Kabuto seemed to sense the impending danger, too.
"That's some teammate you have up there. Or perhaps he thinks you're immortal, too, is that it?"
Sakura rolled over and winced. Her middle was on fire from Kabuto's abuse. But they were out of time, and hell if she'd waste these last moments.
"He knows it." She crawled on top of Kabuto and pulled her fist back for one last punch. "If only you were a better medical ninja, you could understand what I mean."
Kabuto bared his teeth, but he didn't have the strength to throw her off anymore. "Bitch. You'll die, too! It's pointless!"
"Unfortunately for you, Kabuto, I love to do pointless things."
The booming had caught up to them, and the ceiling was starting to collapse as the landmines Deidara had buried detonated in succession. Sakura gritted her teeth and let her fist fly with all her might. Kabuto's face exploded under her knuckles, the bone helmet he wore crunching down on his skull and smashing it to pieces. He convulsed under her and fell still just as the ceiling above finally met the floor. The entire Sound base caved in on itself, burying Sakura and Kabuto with it.