Chapter TWENTY ONE
Sasuke feels himself quickening with each step. Behind him, Kimimaro matches his pace, eyes narrowed and shoulders tense, like he is expecting a fight any second. Sasuke does not sense anyone approaching but he too keeps a hand on his weapon.
"Are we going to creep up or are we going to barge in?" He wonders out loud.
Kimimaro moves so he is walking right beside him and turns to look directly into his eyes. "Which one do you think Sakura will enjoy more?" He asks.
Sasuke scoffs. "Definitely the latter."
"So you're going to kick the door down like some hero." Kimimaro muses. "Should we decide on catch phrases or would your monologue on evil come first?"
"Shut up." Sasuke makes a sharp turn and they are a few corridor away from Orochimaru's lab.
Kimimaro shrugs. "There's a patrol we're scheduled to meet next corridor over." He says.
"Very close to the lab." Sasuke notes.
Kimimaro nods. "We have to be very careful."
Sasuke casts a genjutsu on the Oto shinobi and they are out before they even realize what is happening. Careful to keep their chakra signatures covered, they quickly incapacitate them.
Without a word, Sasuke wipes the blood off of his blade while Kimimaro unceremoniously crushes the bone sword he has just used.
"So, which one?" The Kaguya asks.
"Neither." Sasuke says. "We knock on the door and let ourselves in."
Kimimaro huffs softly and the two of them pause one more time outside the Snake Sannin's office to nod at each other before Sasuke lights his hand up with lightning and shoots through the door. There is a small grunt of pain followed by a surprised gasp.
"Where was the knock?" Kimimaro asks.
"Too much chakra." Sasuke mutters. Lifts his sword with his free hand and cuts the door down with a few neat slices.
In the short time he hasn't seen him, Orochimaru has become so much more frail looking. The Sannin is confined to his bed but no matter how he looks, Sasuke feels a chill run down his spine when his snake-like eyes land on him.
The man has his hands crossed in front of him, blocking Sasuke's lightning blade.
"I expected it to be you. Of course you'd come for me."
Kimimaro makes his way into the room after him, face blank and void of any expression.
Sasuke narrows his eyes. "There's nothing left for you to teach me, Orochimaru." He says, because he isn't sure it this is where he should reveal the truth about his presence in Oto or not.
He takes a few steps until he is now in the room. He scans for other chakra signatures and detects one, the faint flare of Sakura's chakra, coming from the corner of the room. With a quick glance, he notes that that particular corner has a curtain setup and Sasuke thinks he will probably see a glass tank if he peeks around it.
"There was something I wanted, something I needed, and for that, I was willing to risk myself in a place like this. You were after the Sharingan, the most powerful you could find, and both Itachi and Shisui were out of the question; they was too skilled for you, so you came after me." He narrows his eyes further. "You preyed on my grief after the massacre and my obvious position behind both Itachi and Shisui in terms of skill to draw me away from the safety of the village."
He strengthens his chakra when he feels Orochimaru beginning to struggle. "However, I have gained what I came here for in the first place. I no longer see a purpose for being here."
"A bold statement from an Uchiha nursling." Orochimaru mocks. He then shifts his glare from him to the Kaguya. "I did not expect this from you, Kimimaro-kun."
The white haired teen does not reply for a while and Sasuke does not sense even a hint of hesitation off the other teen. It seems the Kaguya meant every word when he claimed loyalty for Sakura. "I no longer believe you are suitable to take care of Sakura." He says softly. "No, I never did. It just took me a little too long to notice it."
Sasuke raises his sword and moves to stab Orochimaru, but all he needs to see is a flash of white for him to know that Orochimaru has disposed of this body. The two teens turn around, ready to fight.
A giant white snake towers over them, its body made of a countless number of smaller snakes. Kimimaro lets out a soft sigh at the sight and Sasuke decides he kind of understand the Kaguya's feeling.
"In order to move from body to body, you experimented on yourself and this is the end result, huh?" He asks.
"Two of my potential hosts here in the same place." Orochimaru hisses. "Now, give me your body!"
Sasuke has no idea who the snake is talking to. The two of them jump to avoid the initial lunge and they easily chop up the smaller white snakes that fly towards them. They land with their backs to the door and they share a small nod before turning back to their opponent.
Sasuke cuts up the snakes then sheaths his sword. There is no time to waste and he cannot risk underestimating the Sannin. He lowers his kimono from his shoulders, baring his upper body. Kimimaro, who had already done so the moment they had begun their spar, yanks out two bones before he recalls the rest.
Sasuke is the first to call upon the powers of the curse mark and almost as though he was lulled along, Kimimaro does the same.
"A snake slithers across the ground, dreaming of the skies it will never be able to fly through. Still, it desperately kept an eye on the baby bird it nurtured in its own nest, not knowing that that would be its own undoing." He feels a countless number of scaly bodies slithering up his limbs and takes a deep breath. He presses further into the calls of the Cursed Seal and Sasuke revels in the power of the monsters he has become.
He shreds away the snakes and meets Orochimaru's gaze. Inhumane wings sprout from his back and he glares at the Sannin through Sharingan eyes. "Because the bird is a hawk and the snake is now the prey to one who is ready to take the skies."
Chapter twenty one here~
Just a note; 'First Time to see the World' has been completed (Our second complete story, yay~) If you haven't checked it out, please do so :)
Darque: So, mostly canon Sasuke vs Orochimaru with slight changes cause Kimimaro is there.
Raven: Things will really start changing after they leave Oto.
Darque: I can't wait.
Raven: Me neither.
Darque: No more mad reading of manga to compare timelines.
Raven; No more hunting down key quotes.
Darque: No more crosschecking of maps and character stats and locations.
Raven: I get the picture, sora mea.
Darque: NOW I SHALL COMPLETELY CONTROL THIS FIC! MWAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA~
Raven: Uh...mkay.
Read and Review~