Well, well, well. Look what we have here. It's me. Me is what we have here.

Without further ado…


Chapter 48: A Desperate Promise


Sakura stepped into Kabuto's… office with a terrified air, and Sasuke couldn't help but want to tell her to calm down.

He didn't, largely because he knew there wasn't much point.

"Ah, you've arrived." Kabuto stood from a chair in the back of the room, where he'd previously been hunched over, and quietly reading something off the monitor in front of him. "Sasuke, Sakura, welcome to my humble little abode."

He scowled almost instantly, the man's sick sense of humor doing nothing for the already frayed nature of his nerves. It seemed that Sakura was much the same, for she recoiled back slightly, taking a single step towards him. He reached out with his hand and placed his palm on the center of her back, trying to show a sense of support that the man across from them wouldn't notice.

"So, I feel there's no real need for introductions, we're all acquainted, after all." Kabuto stepped to the side, silently calling Sakura forward as he gestured to the bed which stood in the center of the room. "Lie down and get comfortable. You'll be here for a bit."

Sasuke took a step towards Kabuto as Sakura lied down. He tried to hold his emotions together, not allowing them to rule over him as Kabuto turned his head, evidently a bit interested in what he'd say.

"Any funny business…" He muttered quietly, letting his Sharingan spin into place in his skull and narrowing his eyes. "And I won't hesitate to-"

"Relax." Kabuto smirked at his obvious discomfort, walking away from him and pulling out his chair from the monitor he'd been at before. The chair was on wheels, and so as he sat down, he pushed himself next to Sakura's position, leaning down and massaging his chin with one hand. "I've no intention of hurting her for the sake of it. I'm no sadist, I can reign myself in on occasion."

"It's the 'on occasion' part that I'm worried about." Sasuke gritted his teeth together. "Just… don't hurt her. Please."

The man across from him said nothing as he paused for a moment. After perhaps three seconds, an easy smile appeared on his face, and he turned towards Sakura. It seemed that whatever conversation they'd been having was now over.

"Right. So, you gained access to the wood style thanks to an odd mixture of Natural energies and Hashirama Senju cells that were implanted in the curse mark, along with your own application of earth and water typed chakras." Kabuto looked oddly impressed as he nodded once or twice, turning back to Sakura and regarding her a bit differently. "Fun little scenario, isn't it?"

Sakura said nothing, eyeing the man hesitantly as she sat still on the bed beneath her.

"Right, you're both panicking, I forgot." Kabuto sighed, sounding almost annoyed for some strange reason. "No jokes, I suppose. That's a crying shame, but I guess I'll make it."

He rolled back over to his desk, and reached over towards a spot near the back, grabbing a scroll from out of it and setting it down on the table before him. He rifled through it quickly, evidently knowing where he was looking inside of it. Eventually, he found the black symbol he'd been looking for, and poured chakra into the seal, bringing out a small vial.

The object in question was an empty needle, for what seemed to be extraction purposes. He turned towards Sakura and lightly dabbed her neck with a numbing agent, just where the curse mark usually appeared.

"I'm going to draw a few things out of this, though you shouldn't really feel it." Kabuto explained, before beginning to count. "Now, you'll feel a slightly pain in three…"

He stuck the needle into her neck, though it seemed like Sakura hadn't actually felt it enter.

"Two…"

He pulled up on the needle, watching as an oddly colored, almost black mixture filled the vial on the end of the sharp point.

"And done."

Sakura seemed confused, turning back towards the man as he walked back towards his desk.

"Wait, what?"

Kabuto seemed equally confused himself.

"You never had that done as a kid?" Kabuto remarked casually, snickering a bit childishly as he sat back down at his desk. "I lied to you to keep your muscles from tensing up. It's a pretty standard procedure."

"R-right…" Sakura murmured quietly, rubbing the spot on her neck he'd drawn the substance from. "Just didn't expect it from you…"

Kabuto snorted.

"I'll pretend that wasn't rude."

"You work for Orochimaru." Sakura's eyes narrowed. "It was supposed to be rude."

Kabuto pointed back at her without looking, as if silently surrendering that point. He worked for quite a while, at least twenty minutes, before he drew the vile back out from the spot he'd left it and poured a small amount on a sheet before him.

"So, the question now is… what happens if I inject more Hashirama cells? Would that allow the wood style to act more freely? Or would that, as I suspect…"

He poured a small, white liquid onto some of the black mixture he'd taken from Sakura. The two immediately reacted upon touching one another, sprouting out and becoming a massive branch that nearly cut into Kabuto's face, as he'd been leaned over it when it expanded.

"So, It did react, and rather explosively at that." Kabuto rubbed his chin. "Can't inject that… wouldn't want you being eviscerated by your own ability ripping its way out from inside your body."

Sakura shivered, scooting away from the man on his makeshift bed. Sasuke moved closer to her, standing next to her and placing his right hand on her shoulder.

"So… I wonder…" Kabuto drew out a new scroll from his collection, moving through it quickly, until he spawned another object from inside the parchment. "Perhaps natural energies… and a bit more chakra… would allow it to…"

He poured a small amount of the new substance onto a drop of the black mixture, and this time, the reaction was nowhere near as grand. However, there was a notable happening, as if the mixture were glowing with energy. Even Sasuke, without his Sharingan active, could tell that something about it was powerful.

"Well, well." Kabuto smiled. "That'll do it."

He turned to look at Sakura once more, massaging his chin as he stood and walked over. He pushed some of his weight on the edge of the bed as he leaned over and inspected her neck once more, making a small humming noise as he bent back out.

He reached back towards his desk and wrote something down on a sheet of paper. He stepped out towards the edge of the room, and, seemingly remembering they were there, spoke to them quickly.

"Obviously, I'd recommend not leaving this room. The base has more than a few traps set up, not to mention some of the more… extreme members." Kabuto smiled as he strode out of the room. "I'll be right back!"

The sound of the man's footfalls gradually faded, until there was only an uncomfortable silence sitting around the two of them, plaguing the entire room with a foreboding sense of fear.

"You alright?" Sasuke asked Sakura, stepping back and giving the girl space to move. "He didn't inject anything with that, did he?"

"No, it was purely a withdraw… I just wish I knew what he was taking." Sakura grimaced slightly as she rubbed her curse mark with her left hand, turning and letting her legs hang off of the structure supporting her. "It was something connected to my curse mark, obviously, and he was trying to power up the wood style, but… the way it reacted… I don't know if I want either of those things being put in my body."

"You don't know?" Sasuke tried to lighten the mood. "I feel like you should fairly solidly know you don't want those things put in your body. They seemed less than fun."

The girl snorted, so it was mission accomplished.

"Still… I can't say I feel terribly comfortable at the moment." Sakura's arm shook slightly, and she grabbed onto it, keeping it still. "I mean… He's an agent of Orochimaru for a reason. I… I just don't know what I'm supposed to do."

"For the moment, we just wait." Sasuke spoke, looking back towards the hallway Kabuto had left from and seeing if the man was anywhere nearby. "We just sit and wait for Naruto to get here. I'm sure he'll have brought an entourage on his own."

Sakura gave a dim smile, and even if it was more muted than it normally was, he was happy there was anything there in the first place.

The sound of steps echoed out from outside their room, and Sasuke turned to see Kabuto walking into the room, carrying an odd sort of basket. It was marked with seals running up the sides, and the entire object gave off such a sinister vibe that Sasuke took a step back from it, before realizing that he needed to stay resolute.

It wasn't him in the firing line, it was Sakura.

"Right." Kabuto spoke, looking towards the two of them and smiled, giving off a rather intimidating aura. "So, Orochimaru agreed with my hypothesis, and we've basically decided that since there aren't many downsides to it, we're going to be advancing your curse mark to the second stage."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, and he watched with his Sharingan as Sakura flinched, her entire body seemingly vibrating ever so slightly with fear.

"What does that mean?" The girl asked, stepping backwards and trying not to breathe more heavily, lest she begin to hyperventilate. "Second stage? What even is that!?"

Kabuto gave off a cocky vibe, a bit like he'd expected the response. He stepped forward and placed the basket upon the ground, taking a set of pills out of his desk and placing a few into his hand.

"These will induce a sort of… death upon the one who ingests them." Kabuto explained. "At that time, your body will begin to undergo a change into the second stage of the Curse Mark. The details don't particularly matter-"

"Like hell they don't matter!"

Kabuto turned towards Sasuke with a small glare, but it didn't negate the way his lips upturned ever so slightly, as clear a sign of the man's amusement as any.

"You think I'll just let that happen!?" Sasuke shouted, reaching back behind him and reaching for a kunai in his bag. "I'll-"

"I think you will let it happen, yes." Kabuto declared with complete confidence. "Because I'm stronger than you."

His eyes widened as the man stepped forward, walking past Sakura and coming to stand directly in front of him, towering over him despite being only a foot taller.

"You'll let it happen because if you don't?" The man tilted his head towards Sakura, and he had to witness the way Sakura flinched away from his gaze, clearly exhausted and terrified. "Then she'll be the one who pays for it."

He shook with rage but could do nothing with it. The man before him wasn't wrong, and that was the thing that truly infuriated him. Kabuto let out a sneer as he turned his back on him, walking towards his desk and beginning to work on… something.

What it was, he did not know, and what it was, it would not matter, for a second later, all hell broke loose.

An alarm that seemed to pierce Sasuke's eardrums rang out throughout the compound, and from the looks of Kabuto's face, he hadn't been expecting it. The man bolted upright, immediately looking down at the left-most part of his desk, where a single monitor lay. He pressed a few buttons on the keyboard below it, and his eyes widened at what he saw.

The man was distracted, and Sasuke knew he had seconds, if that, to act on the idea that'd just barely formed in his head.

He drew a kunai into his hand for real this time, and charged forward, vaulting Sakura's bed as he thrust the blade forward. It didn't connect with Kabuto's back, as he'd hoped, but it did manage to jostle the man slightly as he held Sasuke at bay with a blade of his own.

"Oh!?" Kabuto let out a slightly manic laugh, batting him away with his own edge and taking a step back, blocking the entrance, and, Sasuke supposed, the exit, to the room they were in. "Interesting. Waiting for me to lower my guard to attack me. Unfortunately, you're still as outmatched as you were before."

Sasuke said nothing, weaving into the man's guard with the help of his Sharingan, and slashing upwards.

He was brought back to their fight in the Chuunin exams, when he and Kabuto had first clashed blades against one another. Back then, he'd been overwhelmingly suspicious of the boy who seemed so terribly reluctant to go all out against him, even willing to lose the match to not have to show what he could do.

Now, he got a full taste of Kabuto's power. The muscles he's restrained in their earlier bout were allowed to waltz, the balls of his feet that he'd kept squarely on the ground before now soared through the skies, carried along by the tips of his toes as he practically danced around the room, drawing a few senbon into his left hand and effortlessly forcing them through Sasuke's own guard.

He grunted as the needles impacted into his body. Thanks to the Sharingan, he'd been able to barely dodge them hitting his pressure points and shutting down his body, but that didn't mean having four large needles forcefully embedded into his body felt any better, either, nor did it make the moves he'd have to pull off to beat Kabuto any easier.

He took a few heavy breaths as he formed the series of hand signs for the Fireball Jutsu, though just as he'd been about to breath out the complicated mix of chakra and flame, Kabuto had suddenly been on him in an instant, punching him quite forcefully in the abdomen and practically ejecting the chakra he'd been building up inside of it.

The excess energy had forced its way into his throat and caught fire as it hit the flame chakra he'd been preparing. Left with a burning esophagus and very few options, he forced the flames out as a heavily modified Dragon Flame Jutsu, practically shouting the fire out of his mouth and all around them.

The room was set ablaze as Kabuto took a few quick steps back, spinning a bit superfluously as he landed, though whether that was to put out the tiny ember that had briefly caught his pant leg, or whether he'd just been feeling Sasuke's own dance metaphor, the Uchiha couldn't be sure.

Either way, he knew he had to push his own tempo onto the Oto ninja across from him, and thusly, he'd brought himself forward…

Only for Sakura to jump past him and bring her own blade to Kabuto's own.

In all of the commotion, he'd somehow forgotten the girl was even there, despite the fact that she'd been the reason he was doing all of this. His focus had been so entirely consumed by Kabuto, that his own objective had gone overlooked.

Still, she was certainly here now, and two on one was certainly a brighter prospect then dealing with Kabuto on his own.

The man hadn't been lying earlier, he was definitely better than Sasuke on his own. Really, it was a lot more like when he'd sparred with Kakashi than anything. The battles had been quick and one-sided, his only real advantage being that he could go at Kakashi with the will to kill him, and know that the other man wouldn't so much as dream of letting that happen.

The same held true now, the problem was he was that he was fairly sure Kabuto had no real qualms with beating the ever-loving shit out of him.

Sakura seemed to have realized the same thing, though there was a certain brutality in her movements that hadn't been there the last time they'd fought side-by-side against Gaara.

She seemed to almost possess a killer edge now, and the way she moved was almost like Kabuto, as if she were a flowing snake, often jutting out at odd angles to try and get the drop on her opponent. Sasuke realized a few moments later, as the girl ducked underneath one of Kabuto's blade and continued to slide on the floor below her, that she must've gotten the new techniques from Anko.

I guess they did have more than a month and a half training together almost entirely in isolation. Sasuke reasoned with himself, barely blocking a chakra scalpel from Kabuto that would've severed his arm's muscles from his shoulder. She'd have been destined to pick up some things. Frankly, I'm glad it was the combat, and not the attitude.

His own joke didn't even land that well in his head, and so he chose to not voice it, for fear of a similar reception from the living world.

Still, the girl's style looking like Kabuto's probably wasn't all that far-fetched. After all, the movements were probably all part of a larger set, one used by Orochimaru.

He was brought back to reality by a small shout from Sakura, the girl's movements only able to take her so far as they bobbed and weaved through Kabuto's strikes. Even with her curse mark active, TKabuto was, truly, just better than the both of them put together. They had no real hope of beating him, and especially not when they couldn't really bring out their true abilities, given their own exhaustion, and the tiny space they'd been given for their duel, with no real room to play with distances to outmaneuver a superior opponent.

Kabuto made quick work of mopping him up after Sakura fell, sweeping his legs out from under him with a single kick, and holding a blade to his throat.

Sasuke squirmed for all of a second before realizing he wasn't making it out of it, but it didn't make a difference, for a tiny pain in the back of his neck set off an alarm of his own inside his head.

He reached back just in time to feel a receeding metal object that was cool to the touch. He didn't have to hazard that much of a guess to know it was a needle, and, more specifically, a needle loaded with a hazardous chemical.

Shit… Sasuke thought, already watching the edges of his vision begin to blur. Can't… lose this quick… have to buy… him time…

He tried to force his hand up, tried to pry Kabuto off of him, but to no avail. Even Sakura, who'd managed to get back on her feet, was quickly subdued once Kabuto could afford to let go of him. He struggled aimlessly against his own heavy body, but by the time his opponent had shifted his weight off of him, he'd been too tired to put up any more of a fight.

"Well, you certainly caught me by surprise, I'll give you that." Kabuto sneered snobbishly, rubbing his nose, and catching a small drop of blood that had, presumably, been spilled by Sakura. He'd landed no such hits of his own. "Shame it didn't mean much in the end."

Kabuto walked by them, looking down at Sakura's body and kneeling on her back. The girl struggled briefly, but stopped as the ninja injected the same substance he'd put into Sasuke into her neck.

Sasuke's eyes were incredibly heavy as he let himself fall to the floor. He could barely move his fingers, much less try and put up and resistance. The alarm continued to blare above him, and he had the vaguest sense that there was still something he could be doing…

Oh… right… He remembered groggily. Blood…

He looked around, spotting a broken glass jar that had been launched from kabuto's desk during their fight. He did all he could to get his finger towards it, and, just before Kabuto deemed Sakura too tired to resist capture, managed to prick his finger on it.

A small trail of red came from where his hand had just been, and he smiled tiredly as unconsciousness devoured him.

/-/

Zabuza rushed far ahead of the group, cleaving sound ninjas apart like he'd been trained his entire life to do it, and, to be fair to him, Naruto considered, he kind of had been.

"Hurry it up back there!" The elder ninja shouted, ducking underneath a wind based Jutsu, before utterly annihilating the man who'd fired it off. "If we're to get them out before they can move them, then we've got to be quick!"

Naruto nodded as he dashed forward, juking two other ninja's strikes and driving his own kunai into the ribcage of one. He went down fast, though he was clearly very alive, given the way he shouted in pain. The other was dealt with by Dosu, who's newly repaired gauntlet sent a shockwave of sound down and into the man's body, knocking him out cold on his feet.

Zabuza tanked on forward, but it was really Haku, sowing descent in the enemies lines up ahead, who was doing most of the work. The formations they were dealing with were already missing a man or two by the time they made it to them, and that made them easy pickings for the two Jonin, and even the five Genin, all things considered.

"I got something!" Kiba shouted suddenly, as Akamaru barked incessantly at a nearby fork in the path, as if ordering them to take it. "Akamaru smells Sasuke's blood! He's this way!"

Naruto didn't even wait to hear Zabuza's orders, blitzing down the path with Kiba hot on his heels. Every couple of seconds, the dog would let out a bark, and Kiba would correct their path. He noticed about twenty seconds later that Anko was following behind them as well, and he assumed the rest of them would be there shortly.

They took a flight of stairs three steps at a time, Naruto leaping the last ten or so and rolling at the bottom, continuing to run as he pushed himself forward. At the end of the hallway, unmistakable even to his hope-ridden brain, were the unconscious forms of Sakura and Sasuke…

And they were being hauled away by Kabuto, of all people.

"SASUKE! SAKURA!" He shouted, jumping into the room and bringing his blade down on Kabuto's form.

Unfortunately, another sword met his own edge half-way, and he was buffeted back by the force of another sound ninja. This one seemed unimportant, but the way he smirked let Naruto know he had no intention of letting him past, or getting to his friends.

"Sakura!" Anko shouted out from behind him, before grunting suddenly as something forced her to focus.

"Naruto, Anko, how nice of you to join us." Kabuto laughed. "Funny, I had thought the intruder alarm would be someone else, though I suppose I should've known it'd be you guys."

Someone else? Naruto briefly considered. Who… no, I can't afford to think about that right now!

"Let them go!" He shouted, taking a step forward, bringing a shadow clone into being and drawing some chakra into his hand. "What the hell did you do to them!?"

Kabuto sighed wearily.

"If you must know, they attacked me. I just knocked them out as humanely as possible." The man yawned. "Quite honestly, you should be thanking me."

He saw red for a brief moment, blitzing through the ninja before him with the Rasengan, but being stopped by another, almost identical man, wearing a mask standard to the sound ninja's clothing set.

"Welp, that's all the time I have right now, Mr. Uzumaki, but I assure you, if you'd like to make an appointment in the coming days, I'm sure I could fit you in."

Kabuto jumped backwards, pressing a button on his keyboard with his elbow, and then smashing the thing to bits with it a second later. A bulkhead door at the back of the room that had previously been disguised as a wall opened up, and Kabuto slinked inside, carrying the bodies of his two best friends with him.

"Have a great time! Oh, and try not to die, I've actually grown decently fond of you."

He growled, a bit of the Nine-Tails chakra flooding his system as he forced his fist into the stomach of the man before him, bucking the man's legs out from under him. He turned back around to see what was holding up Anko and Kiba, and saw them dealing with soldiers of their own.

Damnit… Damnit!

"Sakura, Sasuke!" He shouted, watching as the door began to shut at the end of the room, and two more guards took the last one's place, beginning to duel him in the center of the room. "Guys, wake up!"

As if on cue, Sasuke's eyes fluttered open ever so slightly. If he hadn't been expressly looking for it, there would've been no way he'd have seen it. A surge of hope charged through him, but it disappeared a second later, when Sasuke didn't even move in Kabuto's grasp.

The boy's mouth moved, but no sound came out.

I… I'm sorry, guys… I can't protect you right now… but…

But…

"I'm coming, you two!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, battling the twin ninja in front of him with all that he had. "Don't you worry! I'll be right there to rescue you! You can just sit back and relax! Because…"

He blocked a particularly nasty blow, and, with all the strength in his body, sent the man flying backwards with a strike of his own.

"I'll save you! I promise!"

And the bulkhead door shut.

End Chapter 48


Hey hey.

Not a ton to say. New schedule's a lot better for my wrists, and they've been feeling a lot better this past week as I've been wearing braces while I sleep.

Other than that, not a ton to say, other than maybe stay indoors, and stay healthy!

See you all next week!