Blood dripped down his mouth, he muffled his screams to avoid showing his capturer he felt any pain. He would uphold his pride for as long as he could, till his final breath if he had his way. They wanted him to either hand over what it was he had stolen, or else admit he was not the clone. He knew admitting he was the original would mean instant death, so he carried on in silence. He didn't know what they wanted, luckily they didn't ask him to tell them what he had. Or in this case, didn't have.

What ever his clone had stolen must have been important to the masks. Orochimaru closed his eyes tightly, his head lowered as he bit his own tongue to stifle another scream. He was chained to a wall, his arms above his head pinned together making his upper body completely vulnerable to what ever they wished to do.

He struggled at first, but he had soon figured out his wrists were taking a beating when he tried to break free. They were circled with deep blue, almost black bruises due to the chains. He wouldn't be surprised if by now the metal had dug into his flesh and ripped some of it open. His injured arm, although not his worst injury now, was burning as it was raised above his head forcibly.

His shirt was torn and bloodied, and he felt as if he had too little energy to even stay conscious. His breathing was ragged, but that didn't deter his captors from continuing their punishment. The sound of a door clicking open echoed his cell, he didn't raise his head, he stayed where he was. The serpent knew he didn't do it out of lack of care but more out of lack of strength. Who ever entered approached him, and he soon realized there were two of them. He felt someone grab the bottom of his chin to forcibly lift his head. His golden eyes snapped up, weakened but as stubborn as they always were.

The cloned Madara watched him irritably, he then looked over to the cloned Gaara who stood beside him.

"By now, I would say it is safe to assume this is not the clone." Madara said.

"Well, not entirely." Gaara replied calmly, "he is the type to rather die than hand over what he knows we need."

"This is a waste of time." Madara muttered.

"It's our only choice, he will break eventually." Gaara said, "until then, we let the masks do their job."

Madara released the Sannin's face after glancing back into the serpents calculating eyes. Orochimaru could feel his hair was matted with blood, the air he tried to take in seemed to refuse to enter his lungs, to make matters harder he found the air he did manage to inhale was dusty and stale.

The two clones walked over to the torturer and muttered a few things to him before looking back over to their prisoner.

"He will die if he carries on." Madara said casually, "give him a few moments of peace, we can fetch him in an hour and try force the truth out of him again."

"He can stay for a few more minutes." The low leveled mask said.

"I know his limits. If I must request permission to kill you for defying what I say, then carry on with the interrogation." Madara replied coldly. The mask didn't seem to want to push his boundaries. He was aware he was expendable and knew it would be his own death wish to fight with the clone.

The torturer went to the wall and unhooked the chains from the serpent. Orochimaru stumbled forwards, his legs not properly keeping him upright yet. Madara came over and grasped his sleeve to pull him a few steps forwards. The Sannin had no strength to fight back as his reflexes told him to. He was both grateful to be free of the chains and not, the fact that they no longer grated his skin was a relief, however they had been slightly embedded into his flesh and they stung once the metal was roughly removed.

Madara and Gaara escorted him down the hall towards a darker hall, he didn't know it was possible for the darkly lit base to become any darker. His serpentine eyes adjusted to the darkness adeptly, the room now clear as day to him despite the shadows distorting everything for the rest of the room.

He was pushed into a cell, this time with less force as the cloned Kage could see he was in no way able to fight back. He entered his cell, still panting for breath slightly. They had replaced his handcuffs with new ones that were not attached to the wall. They took over the job of digging into his flesh again, and Orochimaru could only guess they were not cleaned from their previous captives time. They were probably masked in another ninjas blood, and that would most likely lead to the serpents own wound becoming infected. He hissed in both anger and distress. He soon realized he was not alone in his cell, he looked behind him to find he was in front of three other men. They all seemed beaten and defeated, their eyes angered, frightful and mad. He wasn't known for being stable minded, but as he stared into the inmates eyes he felt himself wishing he had a choice of another cell. They locked on to him, analyzing his expressions and movements.

He felt them pinned to him even when he looked away, his yellow eyes glided over to the bars of the cell as he attempted to see what lay beyond the prison. He wasn't as curios about his surroundings as much as he was desperate to avoid looking into their eyes any longer. His body was pleading he sat down, but he didn't feel comfortable with the men staring at him. The snake was aware he was hated, the people in the alliance had grown to trust him more than they originally had, he had been given the chance to prove himself to them. He had risked his life for theirs, he had saved them multiple times. However the inmates were not from the alliance, they were captured before the alliance was made. There was a high chance he was now with men who hated him, besides that factor he was with out chakara now that the masks had detained him.

If the men hated him enough, they may take out their anger and frustrations on him. The small slim built Sannin was less than capable of physically out matching anyone, besides that, the masks took him a lot more seriously than other captives. The men didn't wear handcuffs, however the Sannin did. He had no use of his arms, and his injuries were severe, where as the inmates were relatively unscathed.

After a few moments of looking out into the cell, the Sannin decided he might as well try and sit down. He couldn't stand all his life after all and fatigue won out over fear.

He moved to the furthest spot he could, but the cell was small and he found his best attempts didn't get him as far away as he would have liked.

The men clearly had no qualms and carried on staring, carried on with their intense stares. One man got to his feet then approached him, confidently yet chaotically at the same time. He didn't appear to be as human as he should have been, he looked slightly more deranged, slightly more primitive. Orochimaru didn't allow his discomfort to show, didn't allow them to know he was out of options.

The man stopped inches from him, the smell of the man filled the Sannins senses. He wasn't one to verbally complain about such things, but his closer comrades always knew the serpent was a bit of a clean freak. Jiraiya had often mocked him, calling him a drama queen. He had hissed his annoyances, told the man to grow up. He missed those days, him and the white haired Sannin constantly fighting, Tsunade yelling for them be quiet before she silenced them. Then their teacher fixing the problem with out any threats. His teacher. He still hated the man. The memories were sweet, but their relationship was bitter.

His thoughts were halted when the man slammed his hand into the wall behind the Sannin. His arm now beside the serpents head, blocking him, cornering him. The closest thing to pinning he could manage with out actually holding the snake.

"Legendary Sannin." The man slurred, "or Legendary traitor, which do you prefer?"

Orochimaru let his golden eyes flick over the man then to his two comrades.

"I don't much care what you call me." Orochimaru replied, "but unless you wish to lose that arm I suggest you remove it yourself."

The man laughed, it was obvious the serpent had no chakara. They knew it based off the fact that they had no chakara themselves. But it didn't matter, they were larger in size and out numbered him to top it off. It was like a cobra trying to fight a pride lions when it's poison had been removed.

He was beyond tense as the man slowly pulled his arm away, painfully slowly, almost as if mocking him. The serpent knew he was outmatched now, and if his injuries didn't kill him then the men surely would. He felt his already weakened body being rammed into the wall as the man gripped his shirt pulling him forwards to slam his slim form into the concrete behind him.

Orochimaru hissed in pain, then his slitted eyes swallowed the mans frenzied ones.

"What was that snake?" The man barked.

The Sannin swiftly realized he didn't even have the use of his hands due to the cuffs. He couldn't so much as push the brute off him. The mans snarl turned into a Cheshire Cat grin and he pulled the small ninja forwards before tossing him into the corner of the room.

His natural reflexes kicked in and he kept his balance, he felt his arm throb as it was pulled unnaturally and his wrists carried on burning as the metal of the cuff moved around beneath his tattered skin. He winced and then used his captured hands to push himself further from the corner. The other two men were on their feet and walking over to the cornered ninja who's serpentine eyes were now darting between the intruders anxiously. There was nothing he could do, the feeling of being absolutely defenseless had him becoming increasingly anxious. There was no way he could stop them, handicapped on every known level, he could merely submit to the situation. Wether he fought or didn't, it would make no difference to the upcoming event.

He could already feel them over powering him before they had lifted a hand.

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"Our next advance had better be good." Madara said, "the masks will find us here, we know that. So we either plan an immediate ambush on them, or else we seek better coverage."

"Well even with an ambush, I doubt we will kill them all." Tsunade said, "we need to find a place to hide."

"Not true." Orochimaru said with a sly smile.

"We just need to kill the original man." The Riakage agreed, "from there his army dies."

"Also not true." Orochimaru said, "these clones are not shadow clones at all."

The Kage all watched him with confused expressions.

"To uphold that amount of shadow clones would bring the original to his knees. Not even the Kyubi child had enough chakara for that." Orochimaru explained, "the clones are maintained through under ground machines. They are even created from them."

"What if the machines were destroyed?" The Mizukage asked.

"Then all the clones have nothing to maintain them. And the army can not grow." Ororchimaru said.

"I don't understand, why will the clones die because a machine they are not attached to goes?" Madara asked.

"Because the machine replaces the originals job." Orochimaru said, "it has basically become the original in its own way. Just like by killing the leader you assumed the clones would vanish, we now simply have to destroy the machine."

"How do you know this?" Tsunade asked.

"I was abandoned dear Tsunade, I was for a short while a prisoner of war." He stated, "I was once again dragged into their wretched prison cells."

"And they showed you the equipment?" Madara asked.

"Of course not. Why would they do that?" Orochimaru said irritably, "I made a wrong turn. Ended up finding a lot more than I bargained for."

"Really, quite the find. You'd assume they would be more guarded." Madara said.

"I didn't gain access to the room, but I saw the clones being made through the walls. As you know the base is more like a lab, most of the walls are glass. I connected the dots from there." Orochimaru said, "you sound suspicious of me."

"It's valuable information." Madara said.

"Which I'm renown for getting ahold of." Orochimaru said back.

"Stop fighting amongst one another." The Mizukage snapped, "we have to get to the machine then."

"I have just the way." Orochimaru said the sly smile returning, "after discovering they had such a fatal weakness, I managed to get this by pretending to be my own clone."

The serpent took out a key looped around his neck hanging by a rope. The key was strange, in both texture and appearance. The black haired Sannin seemed delighted as it hung like a necklace around his neck, almost as if it were a trophy.

"A key to?" Gaara asked.

"The machine of course. This will give us access to its mechanics. The machine is sealed in. It's operating system however is not. All we need to do it shut the thing down, this will allow us to access it." Orochimaru said, he slipped the key beneath his shirt again.

"Tell me again how you managed to get that?" Tsunade asked.

"I pretended to be my own clone." The cloned Orochimaru lied. The Kage seemed pleased, still under the impression that they were speaking to the original serpent. Still unaware the clone was a better actor than they thought, and had enough lies to back up his stories. The room carried on with their muttering until finally they decided their best option would be to use the key before masks ripped it from their corpses.

"They know you have stolen it?" Madara asked.

"Most certainly." Orochimaru replied casually, "it's not something they take their eyes off."

"Then we can't let this opportunity slip by." The Riakage said.

"We should assemble our men." Gaara stated.

"The Riakage and I will handle the soldiers, Tsunade get the medics ready, Mizukage and Orochimaru get strategists ready, Gaara you calm the civilians and make sure they are well guarded and safe." Madara said.

"We need to locate the base." Tsunade said.

"I remember the route." Orochimaru said.

For once things seemed to be working for the alliance. Despite them over looking the snake in the grass.

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The cloned Kage's walked down the hall, on their way to fetch the serpent and ck to use their interrogation. It had been just over an hour, in their option that was more than enough time for the Sannin to rest up and become more stabilized.

When they got to the cell they saw fresh blood on the floor, the men, the original inmates looked up nervously as they saw the masks allies approach. Madara clucked his tongue in annoyance when he saw the state the serpent was in. His skin looked red more than white thanks to the blood stains. His yellow eyes were pained, his breathing deep and ragged once more. He was far from stable now.

"Look what you have done you barbaric fools." He said in annoyance. He entered the cell, the men shrunk back to avoid the legendary ninjas wrath. Madara bent down to pick the sitting Sannin up, or more accurately roughly pull him up before keeping one hand latched to his bloodied wrists. Orochimaru felt his upper body tense up in pain, his legs were fine, yet he could feel he had no ability to support himself or stand properly. He came to the conclusion he had most likely sustained shattered ribs, and he could only pray none of the broken bones pierced any internal organs.

Gaara looked at him in apathy. It wasn't the young ninjas problem if he lived or died clearly.

"Our healers are useless. Might as well leave him there." Gaara said, "if he doesn't heal naturally then-"

"He isn't going to heal naturally." Madara snapped,"he has suffered far to much damage, his next stop is the next world."

"I wasn't saying it's our best option. But the masks are hardly any good at healing. Most of our trained medics have been killed thanks to the alliance." Gaara stated again, still mostly casual.

"Well we will make do with what we have. We can take him to the medical centre." Madara said irritably.

"He could escape the minute we let him out the holding cell." Gaara said.

The two clones stopped their conversation to analyze the shaking snake summoner. It was clear he was far from having the strength or will power to fight back or escape, but the serpent was unpredictable. One minute he was shattered, the next he was somehow forcing those shattered pieces to become a maddened whole again.

It was one thing he was known for, he was not an easy target to detain. They were fools to risk moving him from the prison to the medical centre. However in his state, he was likely to die from either blood loss or a ruptured organ. They didn't know the extent of his injury. Madara shook his head in annoyance. He would simply teleport the captured snake back and forth, he would sit beside him while he healed. He would personally ensure the Sannin could not and would not escape.

The legendary Uchiha pulled the snake closer, he was met with no resistance. Gaara looked at him worriedly but didn't question the man as he teleported out of the cell. The raccoon like boy looked at the prisoners in annoyance and boredom.

"If you harm him in such a manner again, we will be forced to dispose of you all. Understood gentlemen?" The Sand Kage asked. The men nodded in frightened apologetic frenzies. Gaara rolled his eyes and locked the cell behind him. He wasn't one for cruelty or detainment, but he wouldn't question the mask leaders orders. The snake Sannins clone had, and that didn't seem to worked out for him.

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"What about our clones?" The Mizukage asked, "will they perish as well."

"No, they are not made in the same fashion." The Sannin said, "the cloned Kage have been made with a separate machine. They are independent to technology. Of course that is exactly why they can not be mass produced like the masks."

"It shouldn't matter." The Mizukage said, "we can over whelm them with our army. Not to mention we managed to kill one of the clones already."

"Exactly." The snake Sannin said, " that reminds me."

"What?" The Mizukage asked.

"We need one last Kage meeting before we launch our attack." Orochimaru said, "help me gather the rest."

The Mizukage nodded, staring straight into the clones eyes still thinking he was the real serpent. They walked around the ruined Konoha until the Kage had all gathered outside the old Hokage building. The leaders all had curios eyes pinned to the snake summoner, wondering what he had decided needed attention before they departed and attempted to end the war for the final time.

"The clones may try trick us." The cloned Orochimaru said, " we should find a way to make sure we are all marked as the real Alliance members."

"Of course." Tsunade said, "good idea, we would hate to kill one of our own out there."

"What will we mark ourselves with?" Gaara asked.

"Something that can be physically seen, just incase one of us falls out of consciousness." Madara said.

"A sealing tag perhaps? We simply won't activate it." Gaara suggested.

"It's probably best, if we tie bands around our arms we could lose them in battle. We need to place some thing that won't come of our skin." The Riakage agreed.

"Then we will use sealing tags." Tsunade said, Madara pulled tags out from his kunai pouch and handed them over to the other Kage, they all took one and held it.

"Put it on your shoulder." Tsunade said, "we can each place it on the same spot."

The other Kage all agreed, and once the Kage had all placed their seals onto themselves the cloned serpent internally sighed out in relief. All was well for him now. The ninja would always think he was the real snake summoner, he wouldn't have anything to worry about.

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Orochimaru hadn't wanted to allow himself to fall unconscious but he had little choice. When he woke up he was tied to a hospital bed, his one wrist attached to the side of the metal bed. He had to be honest, it wasn't the worst medical care he had received in his life time. During his many wars he had been forced to heal in far worse places, sometimes places that were well enough worse than the battle grounds themselves.

His worried eyes flittered around the room to gather his thoughts and surroundings.

He saw the cloned Madara sitting beside the bed on a broken looking chair. The masks certainly didn't uphold their base, everything was a tattered mess of neglected ruins.

The Uchiha looked at the snake upon seeing his angered golden eyes awake and startled.

"Try anything, if you so much as try and sit up properly I will knock you out again." Madara warned. His memory returned, the serpent remembered the Uchiha teleporting him, he remembered that as soon as he returned to a physical world he had put up resistance. He had hopelessly tried to break away from the Uchiha, he had succeeded in nothing more than getting himself into a world of much greater pain than he had bargained for.

That explained his searing headache, Madara had done a good job of knocking him out cold. To be fair, the Sannin didn't know why he had bothered trying to escape with no chakara and no element of surprise either.

He supposed it was desperation, he didn't want to be back in the cell with the inmates who wouldn't relent in harming him until he could no longer breath or move, he didn't want to be stuck to a wall by demeaning chains while masks did as they pleased in a hopes of getting him to surrender.

His pride laughed at the prospect of such a defeat, but his torn body, his aching limbs and shattered mind all found the humor to be less than amusing. He could be as willful as he wished, it wasn't breaking his chains. The alliance thought he was dead anyway, so they were not going to come to his aid. Even if they knew he was alive, after their last display, he doubted they would come anyway.

A masked medic entered, he didn't go to the serpent however but went to the cloned Kage. He then handed the man a needle, a substance foreign to the Sannin inside it.

"Here." The man said, Madara took it then injected the substance in to his own arm with little care.

"Thanks." Madara replied handing the empty syringe back. Orochimaru watched him cautiously, unaware of what was in the needle. This caught Madara's attention immediately.

"Do you know what that is?" Madara asked.

The Uchiha was a fool to think the snake Sannin would be dumb enough to answer a question honestly. His clone probably did know what it was, if he answered no, it would be obvious he was not the clone.

"Perhaps." Orochimaru said ambiguously, the Uchiha narrowed his eyes.

"It's no secret. What is it?" Madara said. Orochimaru watched him with calculating eyes.

"Which one would you rather me be?" Orochimaru asked, he had no hope of guessing the substances ability, so he would avoid the question.

"I'll ask the questions." Madara said.

"It shouldn't be a secret." Orochimaru said redirecting his words back at the man.

"I'd rather you be the clone." Madara said, "as that is more important."

"Really? And here I thought you would want to kill me more than get what you desire back." Orochimaru said.

"I put what is important before my desires snake. Now I've answered, your turn." Madara said.

"And here I was hoping to disappoint you." Orochimaru said shifting his golden eyes away from the man. The Uchiha was silent, as if trying to process what was said.

The snake was known for playing mental games, he often said things which had meanings beyond ones imagination. Reverse phycology, head games, tests and lies. They all fell from the serpents mouth, and one had to dissect his words to understand what he was saying. Orochimaru found it amusing, as of now he had no mental game to play with the Uchiha yet he could pretend he did, and that in itself would confuse the clone.

Madara watched him attentively then shook his head.

"I'm a fool to try and work out the devil himself." Madara said, the snakes eyes narrowed into slits at the name devil.

"Who are you to judge me Uchiha? He who was so generous he wished to eradicate half the world, exploit anyone he could to achieve his dream, and then try and pass it off as a good deed. I may do wrong, but I do not disguise it as anything but what it is. If I kill, I admit it. If you kill you sob a story and then kill again under a pretense that you are the victim, that you are the one who is doing right. If I am the devil Madara, I do not want to know what you are." Orochimaru hissed.

The cold words echoed through the clones chest, some how striking a chord but rendering him unable to think of a good response. He couldn't even meet eyes with the snake beside him, but that was normal. That was what snakes did, they found ways to trap you, found ways to ambush opponents. A snake could take out creatures twice their size, and many times their superior. A snake could hide in plain site, could strike with out being seen, kill and then move away unnoticed.

And yet all were aware of their potential crimes, all were aware to teach their young to fear the snake. Madara smiled beneath his mask.

"Do you really still believe you are anywhere close to being human Sannin? I'd have better chance asking the gods for forgiveness than you ever could." Madara said.

"If I am not human so be it. In my experience human beings are not the greatest creatures on this earth, I'd have more respect for the dogs out on the street than I would for a man passing witty judgement on others." Orochimaru said, he had stopped caring about being regarded as human, what did matter? If he was to be seen as a snake so be it, he had wasted enough of his short life thinking about such trivial titles.

"As for the gods, well I have no doubt they would turn a blind eye on me. But let them all know I turned my back on them only after they did to me. So in all respects, my crimes can be weighed by their casually cruel facades of mercy. Besides that, why judge yourself and your morality off entity's you can not see." Orochimaru said.

"Is that what gets you through the night snake? Who is playing the victim card now." Madara chuckled.

"I am not excusing actions with my past tragedies. Nor condoning my future actions with my hardships. I am answering your questions." Orochimaru said.

"Is that so. What makes your confession different to mine?" Madara asked.

"I have made no confession. I have answered a question. The difference is your story is out on the air, for everyone to judge and pity you for, mine is mine alone." Orochimaru said.

"I feel as if you have no story to tell at all." Madara said.

"There isn't a man alive with out a reason, with out a story. But if you feel as if I run on empty history, then so be it. I'm not here to discuss anything of irrelevance with someone of equal importance." Orochimaru said, he could feel his body weighing him down.

He was roughly patched up, his chest strapped in many bandages. He had known his ribs would be broken after the men had kicked him in. He had known he would suffer many wounds from the treatment, and with out his chakara he had nothing to heal himself with. Then his mind locked onto the thought.

How did the cloned Kage have chakara? The chambers were always gassed, they to would be forced to inhale the toxins. Yet Madara had displayed he had his jutsu. The masks wore masks, that would stop them from breathing the gas in. However the clones did not, they merely walked around freely minus the Uchiha's usual orange spiral one. Which wouldn't stop him from breathing the gas anyway. Orochimaru thought for a moment, then his mind flashed back to the injection.

Was that it?

In all likeliness he had never seen a mask inject themselves. If that were the case, then the clones would be equally as chakara-less if they were denied the substance. Or better, the Sannin would have his chakara back if he attained the vile. The prospect of freeing himself again seemed thrilling. Freedom was always a driving force. His golden eyes lit up, and the Uchiha clone noticed it. He seemed confused, from weak to anger, to withdrawal to excited. The snake was unreadable as ever. Unpredictable in every aspect, even the emotions he did display were twisted into something unreadable. Or at least something no one could understand.

He watched the snake for a while before daring to ask.

"Finally lost your mind have you?" He asked.

"What kind of a question is that?" Orochimaru asked.

All he had to do was grab the next vile handed to the next clone, he could inject himself and regain his chakara in that moment. It was flawless. Well not entirely. It had many loopholes, it had many open ended parts which could lead to him being killed on the spot. But he would take the risk. Risk over life in prison. Freedom over most things. He knew he would die in the cells, he may as well take a leap of faith.

"How true, you've lost your mind years ago." Madara remarked.

"Indeed I have Uchiha." Orochimaru chuckled, causing the man to look unnerved. His plan was far from smart, but it was certainly daring and it was certainly his last shot. He had done mad things before from killing Kage to single handedly fighting the Kyubi boy in released mode, he had successfully executed plans many would laugh at. And he hadn't died yet.

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Authors note- thanks for reading, I hope you have enjoyed the story so far.

Thanks to all those who comment, a huge thanks to Vampiredoll666 who as always is a great support.

Hope everyone has a good week from here ~Hourglass8