ii.
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Product of My Brothers
This chapter had been Beta-ed by the magnificent: wistfuldaydream
"Influencing other people is dangerous. Their acts and behaviors become your illegitimate children, and heaven only knows what they might grow up into." -Elizabeth Bibesco
They only had one shot to do this right, and Nanami felt the anxiety of finally making her move bubble up inside her chest. She braced her feet against gritty stone, it's solidity lending her a sense of resolve.
They were about to make a lot of noise, and Orochimaru was already hot on their trail.
Sasuke shifted at her side, his chokuto sliding from its sheath with the ring of steel. Nanami took in their situation quickly, and her fingers curled into the purple fabric that swathed around her temporary thrall's hips.
The room had at least six men, all startled into battle ready stances but hesitating at the sight of their leaders prized subject: Sasuke. They all wore the same bland tan clothing, with the same purple rope around their waists that also Sasuke sported. It was not the most aesthetically pleasing of uniforms, but Nanami supposed they weren't here to look pretty.
Three of these men had weak seals; she didn't think they had enough nature chakra for her to be able to create a connection. Which was sort of ironic in a way, the more power Orochimaru granted his men- the weaker they became to her kekkei genkai.
One man had no seal at all, instead he had some sort of deformed hunched figure, with legs that bent backwards in an extreme curve like a wolf's. Even though his body had been severely modified his chakra remained unaltered and completely human. In other words, he completely useless to her, and she dismissed him with only a passing glance.
Nanami would target the last two; their seals were developed enough, and laden enough in nature chakra for her to influence. A tall man with bright orange hair and mean looking eyes, and another with a heavy scowl and a high ponytail full of dark hair that fell like a wave over his shoulder.
Nanami directed Sasuke's attention towards the four expendable henchmen and he was darting forward before she could even finish relaying what she wanted. His sword flashed in the torchlight and the first man fell to his knees before any of them even realized the fight had begun.
The man's mouth parted at the same moment his neck did and blood poured around him as he slumped to the ground to lie in his own growing puddle of crimson. The wet thump of the man's corpse seemed to spur the others into action; and they leapt at Sasuke with weapons drawn.
Nanami flashed into the small room in the wake of her companion's flickering form. She slid under a poorly thrown punch, her momentum carrying her across cold stone and beneath the surface of the table they had previously been gathered around.
She turned her body as she slid across the floor balancing on the bare toes and flat palms for four points of contact. She bent her knees inwards, muscles bunching and coiling in preparation incase she needed to leap. The stone grated against her skin as she slid but she ignored the uncomfortable sensation and flung an arm out; sleeves billowing past her hands as chakra strings erupting from painted fingertips.
She made contact with Orange Hair just as Ponytail kicked the table above her into a wall. It clattered loudly over the sounds of Sasuke's scuffle.
Orange Hair stopped moving, his seal carving its way across his skin and his eyes glazed over.
He stood there vacantly as Sasuke cut down the wolf-man. A severed arm went flying past Nanami to smack wetly into another wall. A hoarse scream echoed around the room; bouncing off stone to reverberate through the air. She winced at the volume of it.
Ponytail snarled at her, spitting onto the ground and cursing as his… friends? fell around him. He threw a punch low enough to target her stomach as she flung herself backwards into the wall in an admittedly sloppy attempt at avoiding it.
It landed before she could dodge to the side and she felt her ribs creaking with the pressure of the blow. She choked and then wheezed, spit flying from her mouth even as her hands were clawing at his arm before he could pull away again. And he too was in her grasp, blooming ink spreading quickly as she infected his seal with her chakra.
It was silent for a moment. The sound of Nanami catching her breath in heavy pants was the only thing that broke the sudden stillness. She slumped against the wall with Ponytail's arm held in her grip. His face was slack now, the scowl gone.
The small room looked like something out of a horror movie. Body parts strewn everywhere and blood dripping down wet arches across the walls. Nanami was sure the smell was pungent enough to smell from down the hall.
Sasuke slid his chokuto home with a click and made his way her side again; as unruffled and pristine as he had been before the short scrimmage. Nanami noted that in this he was very much like his brother- unflappable in the face of blood and death.
She brushed her ambient chakra along the young Uchiha's to reaffirm their link before gently pushing Ponytail away. His arm fell limply at his side, and Orange Hair approached to stand next to him. The two stood in front of her, eyes glassy and seals settled across their skin in a stark contrast of ink and pale flesh.
"Scatter." She whispered. "Wreck as much mayhem as you can." They nodded, and flashed away before she could blink.
Nanami didn't know how well this was going to work with such a simple command and the distance they would gain between them, but she hoped they would at least gather enough attention for her and the young Uchiha to slip out before the connection was lost.
Sasuke crouched again, and she clambered into the usual piggyback position. He rose as she clutched at his shirt. He rested one sure arm under her, and the other settled at the ready on his tilting sword.
"Let's go." And they were moving again, Sasuke's steps were lightning quick and silent against the stone floors. They made it down a long narrow hallway and past a single turn when a massive explosion went off somewhere behind them.
Sasuke's didn't flinch or hesitate in his forward momentum even as the displaced air snapped their clothing around them. The little bell in her hair chimed, a soft light sound that was at odds with the thunderous boom and subsequent whump of hungry flames coming to life.
Nanami's ears rang painfully and she hid her eyes into the crook of Sasuke's bared neck to alleviate the sting of smoke. She could feel heat licking at their backs and heavy black smoke billowed across the ceiling; raining ash down on their heads in a mockery of light snowfall.
She resisted the urge to look behind them; nothing good ever came from looking back, and Sasuke's skin was warm where she had tucked herself against it. She didn't really want to move anyways.
Nanami was starting to wear out, the emotional strain behind her link with the boy carrying her was stressing her mind as he kept returning her feelings back towards her with a stronger intensity. Nanami had always thought that an Uchiha's aptitude for feeling was much stronger than other people's; now she supposed she had confirmation for that stray thought.
On top of maintaining her link with the boy, there was also the stress from the constant game of cat and mouse between them and the sannin.
It was a game she wasn't sure they could win.
They slipped around another corner and passed a large an archway carved to look like a snake eating another snake. Lovely.
The room they entered was massive, she couldn't even see the ceiling and it was much darker than the rest of the complex they had made their way through. Pillars filled the enormous room, lined together in bunched, neat rows. Sasuke weaved between them as if he had done this a million times before. He probably had.
She was aware Orochimaru had made his way past the wreckage left from the explosion and was moving faster than before towards them.
"Quickly." She urged, and the boy put on another burst of speed as he responded to her.
But it was too late, and she knew somewhere in the back of her mind that there really hadn't been a good chance of outrunning the sannin. She had hoped though, that she might be able to stall long enough…
Sasuke skid to a halt as the tall snake man appeared before them. As if he had just teleported to the spot. Maybe he had, Nanami- realistically- had no idea what he was fully capable of. Though what she did know wasn't very reassuring for their chances.
"Sasuke-kun." The taller man hissed angrily, and he certainly did look pretty pissed off. His already pale skin had a kind of flush to it, (dimly she thought; huh, so that actually is his skin color.) and he was pouring killing intent so heavily into the room that it seemed like the space between them was made more out of Orochimaru's chakra rather than oxygen.
"What is the meaning of this?" He took one long, extremely threatening step towards them and Nanami felt it as Sasuke instinctively began to spill his own killing intent to combat the older mans.
Nanami was left high and dry on that one; she had no idea how to purposefully make killing intent. She was pretty sure she'd managed it on accident before, but that wasn't helping her out much right now. She grit her teeth through the sensation of both these powerhouses letting loose their chakra. The muscles in her shoulders and arms tensed in response to her fight or flight reflexes in a surge of dopamine and adrenalin.
She clutched harder to Sasuke's white kimono and lifted her head from where she had hidden in the crook of his neck. Her vision wavered in the onslaught of violent chakra before it cleared with a snapping sensation- her adrenalin winning over and forcing her body into processing her surroundings.
It wasn't a sensation unfamiliar to her; living with a group of people who were ready to kill at the drop of a hat for the majority of her life had instilled in her a reflexive clarity to process information in the face of 'oh shit, I might actually die this time.'
She supposed she had Loud Blood mostly to thank for giving her this state of mind- and then probably Raven Eyes for how she chose to use it. Her thoughts settled into cold understanding; win, or die. These were her options.
She knew which she would prefer.
"Sasuke isn't home right now." She said as calmly as she could manage, softly tapping on the boys temple with gentle fingertips. Nanami felt a little more confident when her voice didn't break or waver despite all the heavy killing intent in the air.
Thank you Raven Eyes. She could do this. Nanami could do cold apathy. The sannin before her had no business knowing how terrified she really was. He had no idea what she was capable of, and Nanami was going to bluff her heart out till the very last. 'I know something you don't know' she tried to convey with her body language and tone of voice.
She wasn't sure if she was successful, but it was better than simpering and crying any day. There would come a time when there would be no one left to bring her home- and Nanami refused to be a burden. Not now, not ever. She only had herself to rely on. The beast inside her snarled and she felt It in her chest, welling up with the call for blood. Ready for the fight. Its voice always sounded like Hidan's; gleeful and more than a little unhinged.
Sasuke's grip on his chokuto shifted, and his blood lust rose in kind to match hers. It wasn't helping her control any.
Orochimaru demeanor changed as he smoothly crossed his arms, his golden eye sharply focused on her. It was unnerving, and goosebumps shivered down her arms in response. This man was such a fucking creep.
"Hou... Is that so." He hissed quietly, a sickly sweet smile splitting his lips as he took in the boy again. Nanami didn't like the way he looked at them. It wasn't quite undressing with the eyes. It was worse than that, like he was peeling back their skin to inspect the inner workings of their flesh in a curious cold kind of way that said, 'There is no other reason than; because I can.'
The young Uchiha held her to him with one arm, the other gripping his chokuto with white knuckles. He was plaint and vacant inside her kekkei genkai, expressionless in the face of his master; but Nanami knew better. She could feel the turmoil inside him like hot lava warring with the desire to flee and the need to slice the sannin into tiny, incomprehensible pieces. It was an identical echo to how she felt.
Nanami flared a thought through their link, can you get past him?
It was returned with a feeling of hesitancy. So, a maybe then. Probably not in an all out fight; which was exactly what the rational voice inside her (the one that sounded like Kakuzu) wanted to avoid at all costs.
She may not know Sasuke very well, but he was precious to Itachi. So by proxy she supposed he would fit into her little circle somewhere. Nanami had a lot of love to give, and she wasn't stingy. She wanted to avoid throwing Sasuke into a battle she knew he couldn't win. At least, not yet. If the timeline went according to what she remembered, Orochimaru would be dead by Bitter Wing's hand within another year.
Right now though, they needed to focus on not dying.
Orochimaru shifted in front of them, taking on a more aggressive posture, and Nanami registered this despite the two familiar chakra signatures that pinged onto her mental map. They were not extremely close, but not exactly far away either. She must have been too preoccupied to notice them sooner because she knew her range was better than that.
Something uncoiled in her belly, just enough for relief to play at the edges of the multitude of more pressing emotions. Sasuke absorbed the feeling through their link, and it bounced back towards her as he responded in kind. He was just as relieved as she was at the new arrivals, and Nanami chewed at her bottom lip with sharp teeth nervously. He definitely shouldn't feel relieved knowing his brother was coming.
Damn, she really screwed him up.
Orochimaru twitched subtly. The smallest movement in his fingers that displayed his agitation. The purple cat eye-liner narrowed with his eyes, and she could absolutely see why everyone thought this man was so menacing.
He was creepy, and powerful, and he lacked moral constraints and was practically immortal with his 'I'll just vomit up a new body' jutsu or whatever he called it, and all of that wasn't even touching on how awful his killing intent was on its own.
She didn't have long to think about it, their few moments of silent tension came to a sudden end when she found the sannin was right in front of them.
"Fuck!" She yelped, squeezing Sasuke's shoulders and just barely ducking beneath a swipe that was specifically aimed at her head. She felt the air displace and her hair fly up in the wake of his strike. Her eyes widened at the realization that if that had landed, her skull would like like a caved in pumpkin. It was not a pleasant thought.
Her perch leapt backwards in response and landed a fair distance away. But that alone wouldn't do much good. Chakra crackled in the air, hot and furious from the two missing-nin. Sasuke growled low in his throat, his killing intent spiked and he rushed around the man in a wide circle.
Orochimaru stood in place, carefully turning to follow their lightning fast movements with an indulgent smile on his face. His face really pissed her off. Like he was a parent watching his toddler take their first steps instead of someone engaged in a life or death battle.
It only served to remind her of the league's between her abilities and his. They weren't even playing the same game. If it wasn't for Sasuke's presence between them, she was sure she would already be dead. Or severely incapacitated.
Sasuke brace his knees, chakra pooling into his legs and he jumped, higher than she could probably jump, with the aid of chakra laiden feet and she clung to him like her life depended on it.
Well, it did.
He kicked off the side of a pillar and it cracked with a harsh grating sound that was almost as loud as the explosion Orochimaru's men had set off.
They shot backwards through the air with the momentum and he bounced off another pillar to slow their decent even as the first column crashed into another, and then another; like dominos they came down.
There was dust and debris everywhere.
Damn, and Sasuke hadn't even used a technique. He'd just… kicked it.
He moved like he was dancing, around and under and over the falling city of pillars around them.
"You are beginning to irritate me little girl." A sickly sweet voice hissed in her ear and the next thing she knew her breath had left her lungs and she and Sasuke were flying across the room from a sucker punch that would have killed a lesser being. There was a horrible pressure between her shoulder blades, a burning sensation lingered where the man had landed his blow.
They slammed into a wall together, barely avoiding getting clipped by a pillar that was rolling off the side of another. She felt more than saw when Sasuke's head bounced off the stone and she would have winced in sympathy if she hadn't been so preoccupied with the way her legs felt like they were melting into jelly.
She really, really hoped her spine wasn't broken.
The Uchiha grunted on impact and she wheezed and coughed as she slid down his back, her grip lost.
He turned in a swift swinging motion, and how he managed to recover from a blow like that so quickly was completely lost on her. Maybe it was muscle memory. Maybe it was her kekkei genkai propelling his actions. She wasn't sure.
Sasuke's shadow cast over her crumpled body as she too, attempted to regain her feet. He shuffled back a step, his bulk pressing her between the wall and his form.
Nanami coughed again, a harsh raw sound. She didn't think anything was broken because she was sure if it was she would be in a whole lot more agony- but hell if it didn't hurt.
And then Sasuke went unnaturally still, and Nanami groaned as his emotions struck her heavy and damn near overpowering in their intensity.
It was the complete opposite of the vengeful rage she knew he should be feeling.
Shit.
"Little brother." A very familiar, apathetic voice intoned, somehow resoundingly loud despite his soft pitch. There was a deep chuckle that followed and Nanami put more effort into scrambling back up. She used the back of Sasuke's shirt as leverage, pulling and tugging as she fruitlessly attempted to convince her legs to work.
"Where's Nanami brat?" She heard Oceans, followed by a pissed off hissing noise from the sannin who was practically pinning them to the wall with just his presence alone a few steps away.
Nanami felt Bitter Wings's confusion for a moment, and she realized he had no idea what her name was. Regardless, she reaffirmed their link quickly before something awful happened. In response she saw a small sliver of his sword leave it's sheath, leveraged out with the pad of his thumb, and it glinted with the promise of bloodshed in the torch light.
"Here" She called from behind Sasuke, but it sounded more like a breathless croak.
Sasuke's turned to look at her and she saw for the first time that his sharingan was awake, his now visible pupils blow wide and glassy despite his doujutsu's mad spinning. Blood was seeping from his hairline and down his cheek where he'd hit his head on the stone. He crouched low, feet braced against the floor ready to spring at a moments notice and Nanami quickly regained her perch; which she was thankful for since apparently standing was going to be difficult at the moment.
He rose again, feet sliding back apart to balance her added weight in a battle ready stance and Nanami blinked a few time to dislodge the dust from her eyelashes. Sasuke drew the rest of his short sword without prompting and it rang loudly in the space between occupants; his attention firmly on the actual threat instead of his brother. The brother he had sworn on his life to murder- the whole reason he was with the sannin to begin with.
The unusual behavior wasn't missed.
Oceans and Raven Eyes stood casually atop a pile of fallen pillars, and Nanami caught the strange look they shared.
They played a fierce image, red cloud cloaks billowing around them as they stood amongst the dust and ruin as if they blonged right where they stood. The chakra of their killing intent was familiar to her, and she felt a swell of pride in knowing that it easily overpowered Orochimaru's. Samehada was held in a loose grip that belied Ocean's readiness, and Itachi's sharingan was swirling rapidly in the dim light at the larger man's side.
Itachi caught her eyes, and although he looked blank she knew the kind of thoughts that were probably bouncing around in his head.
Ocean's had no such qualms however. "What'd you do to the kid?" He laughed uproariously as if there wasn't a very pissed off snake man gritting his teeth between them.
Orochimaru twitched again, but seemed hesitant to put his back to the newcomers in the room.
"Uhm." She hedged, glancing at Sasuke's slack face and hugely blown pupils inside his swirling sharingan from over his shoulder.
"I'm not actually… uh, sure." Which was true, she was mostly running off assumptions and rough guesses.
Kisame laughed harder.
"Enough." Orochimaru snapped as he took a single, careful step backwards, away from the Akatsuki and towards the rear exit of the massive room they had initially been headed towards.
If he had been a cat instead of a snake she was sure his hackles would be on end. The scales were tipped out of his favor now- Itachi had beaten him once before, with a sure swiftness that spoke of the league's between the sannin and the Uchiha prodigy.
He'd lost an arm in that confrontation, and Kisame hadn't even been there at the time. Or her. Or Sasuke who was familiar with his fighting style, and currently not in the state of mind to feel cooperative with his sensei. Or whatever the younger Uchiha addressed the man as.
He might be a sannin, but he could still feel pain- and they could in the very least put him out of comission for a while. Given enough time and the right strategy she was sure they could kill him too.
Orochimaru made an ugly sound, somewhere between spitting and growling.
Nanami watched his golden animal slit eyes flick over to Sasuke with a calculating look, and she supposed he was wondering if he was going to have to cut his loses and run.
The sannin had put a lot of work into the youngest Uchiha. Years of careful planning and manipulations. She knew he would be loath to leave the boy behind in anyone else's clutches. Not that Nanami would ever force Sasuke to stay, but Orochimaru didn't know that.
His plans for her in contrast (whatever they had been) had all fallen into a glorious pile of shit, and she felt the corner of her lips twitch in wry amusement. Maybe he'd think twice next time before weighing the benefits of trying to steal something that belonged to a group of S-class missing-nin.
"Itachi-kun, Hoshigaki-san, come for your little pet have you?" He said cordially as if his mind wasn't whirling through plans and options like she knew it probably was.
Kisame chuckled. "That's right, looks like you two have had quite the party while we were away."
"Quite." Orochimaru parroted, only when he said it, it had a blatant scathing quality like he couldn't possibly feel anymore disgusted by the notion.
"Hm." Was all Itachi had to say, his dark eyes roving around the demolished room like he couldn't care less.
"Well." The sannin hissed, taking another step backwards. No one moved, no one even twitched. His golden eyes flashed back over to Sasuke for a split second, and then landed on her.
His chakra flared in aggravation when their eyes met. "I suppose I'll be taking my leave then."
And just like that, he was gone. Nanami wondered if she'd blinked without realizing it. Raven Eyes, though, looked as unimpressed as always, his dark gaze tracking something through the shadows that she couldn't see herself.
Nanami hesitated to relax. It couldn't possibly be that easy… right? Her eyes narrowed contemplatively.
Sasuke's stance shifted slightly, and he seemed to revert to an even emptier state inside her kekkei genkai as the immediate threat was apparently gone and he lacked orders.
So she told him calm, and patience. He took her nudges without complaint.
"So, what's with the kid." Oceans asked as he hopped off the pile of toppled pillars. Dust rose around his feet when he landed. She noticed his hand still hadn't left Samehada's hilt, and silver eyes watched Sasuke carefully as if he was expecting the boy to lash out at any moment.
Which was a completely reasonable assumption when Sasuke was involved most of the time.
"About that…" She hedged again.
AN: Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I put a lot of work into it! Please review and let me know what you think! Another big thank you to my hard-working Beta wistfuldaydream, and all my wonderful reviewers for your suggestions and comments!
Next Chapter: Anathema (Ambivalent)