A/N: Here you go, take a new chapter. I'm tired of looking at it and making little nitpicky changes lol. Sorry for the delay! Was feeling a little burnt out and took a tiny break from writing and my husband got me into FFXIV so we spent some time grinding so I can experience the good story content in the expansions. My husband promised me hot elf boys. (He was right. Helloooo Amyeric.)
Introducing some Gaiden/Boruto AU stuff in here FYI. So if the timeline is a bit weird with it, just roll with it. Same thing goes with creative use of some of the strange jutsus out there. This goes for this chapter and future ones.
Keeping track of all these characters was like herding cats. In my drafts Suigetsu kept on reappearing in scenes he was supposed to be gone from lol. (This is what I get for deciding several chapters ago that Sasuke needed a filled out OC SWAT team to go after Orochimaru. Which, in hindsight, the guy did get away with breaking into a whole Kage summit with just Taka. But, y'know, I wanted to be a bit more tactical about it.)
Chapter 34
Progeny
At the break of dawn, Sakura, Team Taka, and the Talons were quick to pack up camp and head back on the trail to their destination - Orochimaru's hideout.
The extra day had allowed the Talons to acclimate a little more to Sakura's presence; there were less shooting glares.
Yumi was sickenly sweet, and preferred to prey on Sakura when she was momentarily alone or separated. Conversations were still uneasy with Yumi, as there was always the subtle and threatening reminder in the tone of her voice for Sakura to leave and never come back for her own good.
Still, being around Yumi was decidedly better than Karin, despite how insufferable Yumi could be. Yumi could only read her memories if Sakura allowed her to touch her, and Yumi had already decided to protect the secret of Sakura's 'uncertainty' with joining the Sound. Meanwhile, Karin only needed to glance at Sakura's chakra to know how she was feeling, which could be very dangerous if Karin asked a particularly pointed question. So, while Team Taka and Sasuke gravitated towards each other (particularly Karin to Sasuke), Sakura lingered further from them to interact more with the Talons.
Koga and Hanma made it easier, since they were the most outwardly friendly towards her. Koga seemed quick to anger, yet equally quick to apologize, and gave a lot of unsolicited advice for being a missing-nin, attempting to pull Sakura under his wing like he had once done with Hanma. It was irritating; she didn't know if he was doing it to get in Sasuke's good graces after threatening her life yesterday, or because he really thought his 'wisdom' was that valuable to her. Hanma was much more easy going and relaxed, but Sakura had to avoid clan politics else she would incite him into a ranting mess. Still, he was the easiest of the two to talk to.
The dark-haired Mio and Rei stuck to themselves, but the closer they all got to Orochimaru's base, the more fierce their faces became. Sakura asked Hanma about them and he confirmed her prior suspicions; they both were Orochimaru's former experiments. Sakura understood their expressions then - they were ones of vengeance. Hanma kept on shooting worried glances at them throughout the day.
Meanwhile Sara stayed mostly by Funai's side, chattering away, while Tsume, still ghostly silent, hung closest to Yumi and Jugo out of anyone else. With Jugo there was nothing but mutual silence, while Yumi filled the gaps with her own musings.
Funai was still obnoxious, with his superiority complex and fragile ego still on display for all. He had turned his nose up at Sakura numerous times throughout the day, but at least the snide comments had stopped. He kept himself busy trying to flirt with Mio, who promptly snarled at him, then Rei, who did the same, and then Tsume who mutely drew a hidden blade on him. Sara just rolled her eyes at it all.
"Anyone tell you that you're fucking annoying?" Koga said to Funai.
Ice bristled around Funai as his face twisted in outrage. "What did you say to me?"
"You're never going to get your dick wet and spread your 'almighty' bloodline limit if you keep on shitting out of your mouth like that."
"What, and the hairy cat-man knows better?" Funai retorted.
"Yeah, because I'm not a fucking dumbass. Besides, if you're hunting for pussy, I'm right here. Meow," Koga winked at him with a mocking grin.
Funai's face reddened. "I'm not looking for some fling. I'm looking for something serious , if it wasn't obvious enough. A wife, one whom I can have children with to pass my bloodline limit to. I'm not letting the Mist succeed in its attempt to destroy my clan."
Hanma said, "No offense, but that's not gonna happen when you're leading with 'want to be the mother of my children' or 'want to help me revive the Yuki Clan'. I'm pretty sure women don't want to think about popping out your babies the second you flirt with them."
"I wasn't trying that hard, and none of the women here interest me much anyway," Funai retorted. "If I actually was trying they would already be fighting over me."
Koga let out an disbelieving laugh. "Not even Sara? You two seem to tolerate each other."
"She's not into men."
"Then what about Hanma's sister? Hisako, was it? I bet she's awfully lonely back in empty ole Otogakure."
Hanma glared daggers at Koga.
"She is beautiful," Funai said thoughtfully. "And she too has a powerful bloodline limit. Our children would be powerful."
"No damn way. You keep away from my sister. The last thing she deserves is an ass like you."
Funai scoffed. "What? You don't want to combine our powerful bloodlines together? Thought you also wanted a chance to restart your clan, outside the meddling of your old Village, and make it stronger than before."
"Ha! Funai as your brother-in-law!" Koga roared with laughter.
Hanma shot Koga an unamused look. " Better, not stronger genetically. I just want my kids to have a future free of the curse seal."
"Y'know, if I'm bein' honest, I think you guys picked the wrong place if you want to ever settle down and have brats of your own," Koga said. "If it wasn't obvious before, I'll tell you now. We'll be fighting for the rest of our lives against the rest of the world."
"The future of the Sound lies in its children," Yumi said, startling them all from her sudden appearance. "There must be a society built for them, else we'll never be anything more than an unusually large missing-nin band that will simply die off in a generation."
Koga wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Bah. I don't want to think about that deep stuff. I just want to know where my next fight is. And..." Koga nudged Hanma's shoulder hard, causing him to stumble. "I wanna know if our boy Hanma already has a girl in mind for his future little brats!"
"Uh…" Hanma's mouth opened like a gaping fish.
Karin shushed them all then. It was dusk, and they were mere miles away from Orochimaru's hideout. They couldn't risk being caught by scouts, particularly by a "fucking stupid conversation", as Karin had put it.
After a few more silent minutes of travel, Karin halted them and nonchalantly turned her head towards the trees beside them. "Natsu. Report," she said.
Vivid yellow eyes suddenly opened on the trunk of a tree. Sakura startled, as did a few of the others. A person dropped silently to the forest floor, skin and clothes once a camouflage of the speckled grey-browns and mossy greens of tree bark phasing to normal copper skin and cloth. They were equally beautiful and handsome; Sakura couldn't tell if they were man or woman.
"The watch is north, on the other side of the base," Natsu replied bluntly. "Path is clear."
"And Jun?" Yumi said.
"They suspect nothing."
Yumi hummed in approval.
"Three Leaf-nin set up camp ten miles west of here," Natsu said. "Know anything about that?"
"Yeah," Karin sighed. "Tailers, or pests with an inconvenient interest in Orochimaru." Karin then shot Yumi a withering look.
"Just ignore them," Sasuke said. "If they gave up for the night, it means that we are free to strike Orochimaru now without any interference."
"You strike tonight?" Natsu raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah," Sasuke said. "Do you have a map of the interior?"
Natsu nodded, unraveling a scroll with a sketch of winding underground pathways with labels scrawled on the margins. They pointed out a location outside of the base where they all approximately stood.
Sasuke took the map. "Signal Jun."
"Wait here." Natsu's skin and clothes shifted back to match the surrounding environment, and they took off into the dark forest without a sound.
Sasuke pinned the map to a tree trunk with the toss of a few kunai. "Now let's discuss the plan. And remember," Sasuke said. "This base used to be Obito's. When he brought me here, he had walls of spare Sharingan. That means Orochimaru has had unrestricted access to them for years, potentially, if he found the base right after the war."
Sakura clenched her jaw. Orochimaru had spent years trying to groom Sasuke to be the perfect body for him to steal, wanting nothing more than to possess the almighty Sharingan. And now he had bounties of Uchiha eyes to do what he pleased.
When Natsu returned they waved everyone to follow them into the brush. "Jun disabled the alarms," they explained.
Wireless radio devices were handed out - an earbud in one ear, a control strap fitted around the neck, and the wire roped down their outfits to a small, pocketed transmitter.
As discussed, they all would split up into teams, each team breaking into a separate emergency exit. Sakura's team would include Sasuke, Jugo, Suigetsu, and Karin. The second team would be Yumi, Koga, Funai, and Tsume. The third: Hanma, Sara, Mio, and Rei. Team 2 and Team 3 would sow chaos and confusion, distracting attention away from Team 1 as they pursued the scroll. Natsu would leave them to return to scouting and look for any escapees, and Jun would unite with Team 1 inside the base once he made his betrayal known, and then lead them to the scroll. If Orochimaru were to be encountered by Team 2 or Team 3, they were to disengage until Team 1 could arrive for support.
("Oh, it's just not fair that you'll be seeing Jun before me," Yumi had lamented to Sakura. "I wanted to be the first to introduce you.")
Team 2 and Team 3 split off from Team 1. Sasuke led them through their secret entrance - the inside of a gnarled, fallen tree - hollowed out, with the diameter of two men. In the center the bark had rotten to earth and stone. With a stroke of his foot, Sasuke brushed aside the scattered, rotten wood, revealing a seam in the stone below. He beckoned to the rest of his team to gather around him, and then formed a hand sign. The ground beneath their feet glowed faintly in the shape of a seal, and then the round platform they were standing on descended down into the earth. The elevator lowered into a tight, dark room with a single man in a lab coat waiting expectantly for them, a bloody tanto in hand, only half his face alight with the flickering torch on the wall. In the dark corner of the room was a crumpled body.
The man had long hair, loosely braided, and his eyes were as midnight blue as his hair. He broke out into a grin, eyes dancing with delight. "Well, if it isn't Sasuke in the flesh! About time you came!" He then scowled. "You're late!" He pointed the blade at Sasuke accusingly.
Sasuke casually pushed aside the blade with a single finger. "We got held up."
The man's eyes then trailed over to Sakura. "Wait now - who's this lady?" he said with intrigue, flicking his tanto at Sakura now.
Sakura felt unnerved having the blade pointed at her now, but she could tell by his loose body language and the distance between them that it was not a threat so much as just him being rude. "My name is Sakura. And I'm the key to obtaining the scroll. You're Jun?"
A grin split across his face again and his gruff voice turned silky smooth. "Correct. It is a pleasure to meet you, Sakura." He pulled the tanto away and gave her a flourished bow.
The distant sound of shouting and combat in a distant part of the underground reached them. The other teams had entered combat.
"We're wasting precious time," Karin huffed, shoving a wireless radio device in Jun's hands. "Bring us to the scroll before Orochimaru catches on. Is it still in the same place as in your last letter?"
Jun scratched his short-cropped beard with an absentminded finger. "Should be. Not that I can peek inside the place he's locked it in. Guess we'll have to find out for certain when we get there, eh?" He winked at that, then knelt down to wipe the blood off his blade on the shirt of the body near his feet.
"You're just gonna get more blood on that thing," Suigetsu said.
"I named it after the love of my life," Jun smirked. "What kind of man would I be if I didn't pamper it every second I can?" He sheathed it then, kissed it, and strapped it to his belt. "Follow me."
Jun led them out of the cramped, narrow room to a winding, stone hallway. He had them pause around a corner for a moment as shouting enemy-nin ran past towards the fighting. Fearful scientists fled in the opposite direction.
"Karin - can you sense him?" Sasuke asked.
"No. There's something about the walls of this hideout… I can barely sense people around a corner," Karin said. "It's all muddled."
Sasuke's Rinnegan peeked out of his hair. "Hm, you're right. Not even my Rinnegan can pierce the haze over this hideout."
"Last I knew, Orochimaru was in his lab a floor down on the opposite side of the base," Jun said. "We should have enough time to make it to the scroll before he can react."
Jun led them to an unassuming wooden door around another corner. Before he could open it someone called out behind him, "Jun, you traitorous bastard!" It was a group of enemy-nin, the shouting man being someone garbed in a similar uniform as Jun.
Jun shrugged at them, pointing a thumb at Sasuke. "He's got better benefits. And he's better looking too."
"Suigetsu. Jugo," Sasuke said. "Take care of them and watch the door."
Suigetsu pulled the sword off his back with a gleeful laugh. "I've been itching for a fight!"
Jugo moved protectively in front of the group, speckled gray curse spreading across his face.
Jun motioned the rest of them through the door.
A pale teenage boy, about fifteen, stood in the bare room waiting for them, skin as ivory white as his tousled hair, with piercing yellow eyes. A long, thin scar crawled up his cheek. His metal armor made him look like a samurai from the Land of Iron.
Everyone assumed defensive stances, before Jun quickly said, "Hey! He's with me. He's on our side."
"Who the hell is this?" Karin said, shifting defensively behind Sasuke. "And why does he feel like Orochimaru?"
"Log," the boy introduced himself. His yellow eyes bore an uncanny resemblance to Orochimaru's. He knelt and bowed his head respectfully towards Sasuke. "I wish to join the Sound."
"A defector?" Sakura said as Sasuke regarded him with consideration.
"You told him about our plan?" Karin snarled at Jun. "If he's compromised he could ruin everything!"
"Hey, now! It was you who told me to find a way for someone to replicate Orochimaru's chakra signature, right? This is it. And I wouldn't have brought him along if I didn't trust him. You're very welcome, by the way."
"Why do you wish to join us?" Sasuke asked Log.
"I am a genetic clone of Orochimaru, modified to have perfect DNA. I was created to be Orochimaru's next body replacement," Log answered. "I wish for freedom instead."
"His chakra is even," Karin sighed. "He's either telling the truth or can lie as easily as breathing."
"I know at one point you were also meant to be Fath- Orochimaru's host, but you denied him," Log said to Sasuke. "After I had learned of you, how could I not want to follow in your footsteps?"
"Very well," Sasuke said. "But remember, if you betray us your life is forfeit."
"Understood," Log responded.
Sakura stepped forward towards Log. "So how are we going to do this?"
Log stood up. "As that woman already noticed," he indicated towards Karin, "my chakra signature is nearly identical to Orochimaru's. The problem is that Orochimaru sealed my ability to use chakra after I disobeyed him, so I cannot undo the seal myself." He showed his palms, which had a curse seal in the center of each one. "But someone talented enough might be able to mimic my signature."
Sakura looked behind him. The room was bare, all but the flickering of the torchlights and another door, framed by a carving of a long, slithering snake. The door was made of stone and covered in spiralling seals, all coiling out from a bare spot in the center, large enough to fit a single hand.
With Suigetsu and Jugo fighting outside, they didn't have much time to waste. The clashes and shouts outside the room made that clear.
Sakura took a step forward, holding out her palm towards Log's chest. "Then let me feel your chakra."
Log stepped forward into her flat palm.
Sakura closed her eyes and focused, reaching out with her chakra to feel his. His chakra was a swirling force. The rarest nature affinity - Wind; like Naruto. And his chakra supply was enormous.
Sakura's own affinity was Earth. Steadfast and straightforward. Quite the opposite of Wind, with its darting, swirling nature. It would be difficult to copy Orochimaru's type. On top of that, she would struggle to match the thick flow of his bountiful chakra supply; her own had always been so sparse. And she had never attempted anything like this before.
Still, she tried, focusing on the unique patterns of Log's chakra flow, and then attempted to apply it to her own chakra flow.
"It's starting to resemble his," Karin commented. "Keep going."
Sakura pushed herself harder, trying to match the exact gyrations and whorls of Log's chakra. But the longer she went, the more nauseous she became, and the harder it became to focus. It was unnatural to try and change one's chakra nature, even in mimicry. She almost stumbled, but Jun was there to steady her shoulders with a "whoa there".
"I… I can't," she finally admitted, releasing her vice grip on her chakra flow, letting it resume to its natural flow. Immediately she felt better.
"Then what now?" Karin said, irritated. "We're not leaving without the scroll."
Sakura gritted her teeth. She hated feeling useless. This was supposed to be her moment.
"Why don'tcha dig it out?" Jun suggested. "The walls are made of compact stone and dirt. Can't be that difficult."
"No," Sasuke said. "The seal would have accounted for that. Any forced unauthorized access would trip the security, and potentially destroy anything inside."
Sakura meanwhile racked her brain for ideas, refusing to fail here.
She thought of her genjutsu training with Lee, how she had put a little of her own chakra into him in order to follow his control. If only she had the ability to absorb chakra, perhaps she could flow Log's chakra through herself and use it.
That's it!
"Sasuke, your Rinnegan works the same way as Pain's or Madara's, right?" Sakura asked. "You have all of the same abilities?"
"Yeah. What are you thinking?"
"Pain could absorb chakra and he could also transfer chakra through those black piercings, right? I want you to absorb Log's chakra and transfer it to me so I can use it."
Sasuke's brow furrowed, Rinnegan flashing through his long bangs. "You sure?"
"Yes."
Sasuke held out his palm, and out of his flesh came a narrow, black rod - pointed at one end. "It will be disorientating and throw off your movements, having his chakra forcibly mixed with yours."
Sakura smirked, taking the black rod. "Which is why I will store just about all of my chakra in the seal at my forehead. It will be easier to manage one type of chakra."
"And you seriously think you can control chakra that isn't wholly your own?" Karin asked, skeptical.
"I am an expert in chakra control, am I not? I can apply both concepts of chakra control together - control of my own chakra and control of others'."
Sasuke smiled, pleased. "Let's hope this works. The chakra absorption technique is meant to negate enemy chakra within my body, not transfer it out. But, I should be able to repel it before it mixes with my own chakra."
"I'm ready," Log said.
Sakura stabbed the rod into the meat of one of her palms, letting out a muffled gasp of pain. Hot blood bloomed and ran down her wrist. "Let's do this," Sakura grimaced.
Sasuke nodded and placed a hand at Log's chest, both Sharingan and Rinnegan activating at once. Sakura meanwhile, pushed all of her chakra to her seal, feeling herself become weaker and weaker, making sure to leave barely enough to keep her conscious and functional. Then she felt Log's chakra flood into her through the rod, and her whole world spun. Jun steadied her again. The invasion of the foreign chakra hurt - prodding and poking at her insides, vying for an escape from its prison. She gave it what it desired, placing her uninjured palm in the center of the sealed door and releasing the chakra out her hand in a controlled fashion, doing her best to keep its integrity rather than letting it burst out all out at once.
The swirling doorway seals came to life, glowing an accepting green before the door slid open.
Behind it was a small room. There was a collection of exotic weapons, a few shelves of preserved Sharingan eyeballs in jars (but not near as many as Sasuke had led them to believe), and project files.
While the others dug through the storage room, Sakura tugged out a bit of chakra from her seal, enough to sap some off without needing to release it. Her own chakra revitalized her, and she felt at once more alert and strong. She tossed the rod aside and focused on healing her bloody palm. Jun let her go when he was confident she was steady on her feet.
Log's eyes widened. "The sword of Kusanagi," he said with reverence. He grabbed the sheathed katana and attached it to his belt on the other side of his wakizashi.
With a few well-placed slashes of his katana, Sasuke destroyed the Uchiha eyeballs within the room, the glass shattering, then spilling to the ground with the liquid preservative and halves of each eye.
"It's not here! Where is it, Jun?" Karin snapped. "You said it was here!"
"Huh?" Jun drawled, scratching his temple. "Huh. Was pretty sure it was here."
"Jun, you useless bastard," Karin groaned. "Why the hell did we pick you to be the spy again?"
"Because I'm a good liar," Jun answered with a crooked grin.
"Where else would Orochimaru have put it?" Sasuke asked.
Log's frown twitched. "If it's not here, he has it."
Sakura and her team shared a significant look before their radios buzzed in their ears. "Team 2 needs back-up!" Hanma's voice rang out. "Orochimaru and- Dammit, Mio!"
Sasuke voiced in, face suddenly fierce. "Hanma, which room?"
"R-5! It's R-5! Hurry or- Rei! " Suddenly there was a yell, static, and it went out.
"R-5 was one of the training rooms on the east side," Sakura said.
"The east training room? I know the way," Log said. "Follow me."
Log led them out of the room in a frantic run to the other side of the base. Suigetsu and Jugo joined them a step behind, their enemies slain. Jugo was still quivering in delight from the bloodshed, a manic grin spread across his face, as his dappled gray skin reluctantly retreated.
"Hey! We have the scroll, right?" Suigetsu exclaimed. "And who's the new guy?"
"We don't have it," Sasuke answered grimly. "Our new ally is leading us to Orochimaru. He should have the scroll."
"Shit," Suigetsu exhaled.
"Oh, we have more to worry about than just him," Jun assured.
After a few more twists and turns, there was shouting up ahead. Around the next corner was a brutal skirmish of Team 3 against their enemy-nin opponents in what once looked to be a lab, from the looks of the sparking wires and destroyed equipment.
"Moving through!" Karin declared.
Funai noticed them, called a wall of ice to block enemy pursuit, and nodded at them. Yumi was beside Funai, and let out a small gasp when she turned and saw Jun.
Seeing the momentary reprieve the ice wall gave them, Jun rushed up to Yumi, lifted up her mask just enough to kiss her - deeply - then grabbed her ass and growled something naughty in her ear that left her giggling. "After," she purred. (Sakura was blushing from the gall of it, Karin and Suigetsu made a disgusted noise.)
"I'll hold you to that," Jun said, winking. He ran backwards for a moment, long enough to blow her a kiss, before turning around and joining the rest of Team 1. His cheek was left with a bloody smear from where Yumi had touched his face, blood presumably from one of her foes.
"Really?" Karin huffed at him.
"What? I haven't seen my girl in almost a year. Can you blame me?" Clueless, he itched face where the blood was, and it only just smeared it further across his face.
Around the next corner of the winding hallways they were confronted with another group of cold-eyed enemy-nin blocking their way.
"Jugo and I got 'em," Suigetsu said. "Go!"
Jugo and Suigetsu charged in, this time Jugo cackling with maniacal glee, and both swiftly created enough of an opening for the others to slip by the fighting.
Log led them down some stairs, through a room with empty cells, and then rounded the corner. The doorway brought them into a cavernous, dimly-lit room, made of inlaid stone, with enormous tree roots twisting in a wild maze from the ceiling and burrowed down through the floor.
The hair raised on the back of Sakura's neck.
"It's him," Karin hissed.
Spread across the room were strewn bodies - Hanma, Mio, and Sara. In the middle of the chaos stood two figures, one fully cloaked, and one with dark hair. The dark-haired one had their back turned to Sakura and the others, intimately close to an injured Rei, who was pinned against the side of a tree root with long, metal blade fragments. Her bamboo hat was at their feet, sliced to ribbons. The three were cast in darkness from the shadow of the root.
"Give her back her body, damn you!" Rei weakly snarled, clutching at a blade shard stuck in her shoulder, feebly trying to pull it out. It did nothing but slice her hand open.
"Oh, it's much too late for that. Your mother is long gone, but I can still hear her soul inside me wailing for you," the dark-haired figure chuckled in that awful, familiar voice. A too-long tongue whipped out of Orochimaru's mouth, licking a slow trail up Rei's bleeding temple wound. "I think I'll keep you alive - I can taste that our bodies are compatible too. I could always use another spare. Would you like that? The chance to join your mother inside of me?"
"Orochimaru," Sasuke sneered.
"Ah, if it isn't my former pupil, Sasuke," Orochimaru said without surprise. "So it is you I have to blame for this intrusion." His voice had a gravelly weakness to it, and Sakura could tell why. Patches of skin on his arms were red and weeping, covered in soaking bandages. His body was dying. Orochimaru tilted his head to the side to regard them - half his face was obscured by bandages. "And I see my dear son Log has betrayed me as well." While the voice and those purple markings were distinctly Orochimaru, his body was that of a pale woman, who looked eerily similar to Rei and Mio. His form then slowly shifted to his familiar male body. "Tell me, how is Kabuto fairing nowadays?"
"Is it that time for a new body so soon?" Sasuke mocked, slowly drawing his blade. "Looks like not even your Hashirama cells can heal over the disgusting rot of your soul."
The cloaked man stepped protectively in front of Orochimaru. The scattered blade fragments sticking out of the Talons flew over to his empty sleeve, forming a bladed hand. Rei dropped unceremoniously to the ground once freed of the fragments, letting out a frustrated sob as she struggled to even move.
Hanma, who was thrown against the wall closest to Sakura, let out a groan. Seeing him alive, Sakura's medic instincts took over and she immediately rushed over to heal him. "Rei," he rasped.
Orochimaru's visible eye twitched at Sasuke's comment, and the corner of his mouth sneered into a smile. "Now that you're here, it looks like I have more options to choose from. I never thought I'd get my hands on the Rinnegan."
"Don't make me laugh," Sasuke smirked. "Do you honestly believe you can take it in your weakened state or through your friend here? I defeated you when I had a fraction of my current power, and once again I face you weak and feeble."
"You would be wise not to underestimate him," Orochimaru grinned dangerously. "Please, Shin. Introduce yourself."
The cloaked man removed his hood.
Sakura's face twisted in horror.
He was a grotesque, bald man. Bulging eyeballs - no, Sharingan - covered his scalp, each one staring straight at them. In his eye sockets were another set of Sharingan, but one of the eye's sclera was pitch black, with the eyelid stapled wide open and weeping fluid. That eye in particular had a Mangekyo Sharingan itself.
Kakashi had to cover his single Sharingan to conserve his chakra. For this man to wield so many at once - he had to have an enormous chakra supply.
"Sasuke Uchiha," the bald man chuckled darkly. "I've been wanting to meet you for some time." The man grinned, with nothing but toothless gums remaining in his mouth.
Sasuke paled in shock before his mouth twisted into a dangerous sneer. "Am I supposed to know you?"
"My name is Shin Uchiha," he said, "and I am the future of the Uchiha Clan."
Sasuke let out a mocking laugh. "You are no Uchiha. All of them are dead but me. You are nothing more than a pretender, insulting the memory of my clan by stealing eyes never meant for you."
"On the contrary, it is you, thief and betrayer, who has eyes that do not belong to you," Shin said. "With you here I can finally avenge Itachi Uchiha, take back his eyes, and then continue his work."
Sasuke did not deign to ask the ridiculous question of what Shin thought Itachi's 'work' was exactly. "You know nothing about Itachi. Don't presume to speak his name again in my presence."
Shin threw off his cloak, which had the Uchiha symbol embroidered on the back. Along his bare shoulders and down his remaining arm were a collection of more Sharingan, and one by one each rolled in their mockery of an eye socket to train themselves directly on Sasuke. The other arm was made up of the telekinetically controlled blades.
"That's right, Sasuke," Orochimaru said, seeing Sasuke's stare. "Danzo's arm originated from Shin. Madara kindly lent me some of his spare Sharingan before his demise, and I was able to trace his treasured supply here after the war."
"So all those eyes you have are from my clansmen that died that night." Sasuke let out a slow breath, shifted the blade in his hand, pointing it directly at Shin. "You too will die here, Shin. I will not make the same mistake again - I will destroy all of the remaining eyes in this lab so my clansmen can finally rest, and at last I will be the final wielder of the Sharingan." Sasuke's Sharingan flickered, awakening to his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.
In response, Shin activated all of the Sharingan across his body, every single one of them Mangekyo Sharingan of their own - all with that same strange triangle shape.
Orochimaru chuckled. "Can your eyes match the power of fourteen awakened Mangekyo Sharingan, I wonder?"
Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise. "So all of them are Eternal, huh?" The corner of his mouth then twisted into a crooked smile, murder clear in his sharp eyes. "Yeah, I guess we'll have to find out," Sasuke chuckled darkly.
"Sasuke - don't get distracted," Karin snapped. "Remember why we're here."
"Ah, this scroll, I presume?" Orochimaru said. He tilted his head back, and his neck bulged grotesquely, before a sealed scroll case squeezed out of his mouth, and suspended in the air by his long tongue for a taunting moment, before he swallowed it once more. Orochimaru grinned at them. "This certainly will be quite a boon to you and your reborn Sound, that is, if you have the other pieces."
"Give it here and maybe I might just spare you."
Orochimaru laughed. "Very funny, Sasuke. We both know that isn't true. But you should know," Orochimaru spread his arms wide, "if you kill me, the scroll will be rendered useless, as will the others you collected. It is now attuned only to me and thus only my chakra can harness its power."
"What do you mean?" Sasuke said.
"The creator of this jutsu did not want it to be stolen and used against her country. This was her solution - the master scroll I possess binds to one's very soul. She died before she attuned to it herself. Pity, but such was expected during the Warring States Period - for talented youth to perish far before their time."
Sasuke gritted his teeth. "You honestly want me to believe that all these years no other person had tried to attune to it?"
"The master scroll was left incomplete," Orochimaru said. "While difficult to decipher its true intentions without the other scrolls, only one such as I, who has a vast wealth of knowledge on all jutsus imaginable, would have been able to do so. It was I who finally completed the master scroll. Now I only need you to hand over the pieces you've stolen."
All of Team 1's earbuds buzzed at once. "Team 2 requesting back up at R-13," Yumi's strained voice came through from the other side. "The three Leaf-nin are here."
Sakura's stomach dropped.
Karin responded. "Back-up unavailable from Team 1 and Team 3."
"Capture them alive, if able," Sakura added. Karin gave her a calculating look. "For questioning."
"Jun, don't let Karin get harmed," Sasuke commanded as he eyed Shin, katana shifting in his grip.
"Sorry, sounds like my girl needs me. You'll all have to make do without." Jun saluted them with two fingers, and then unashamedly sprinted back from where they entered from.
"Jun! Come back, you good for nothing bastard!" Karin yelled after him.
Shin took this momentary distraction to attack. He shot the blades of his arm out at all of them as he charged. They leapt out of the way, except for Sasuke, who stepped in front of Karin and deflected the blades with his sword. Sakura pulled Hanma out of the way just in time.
"Damn it. Log, you protect Karin," Sasuke commanded as he met Shin in battle, blocking a slash of Shin's bladed arm. "Sakura, distract Orochimaru until I'm finished with this guy."
"Acknowledged," Log said, drawing both his wakizashi and his new Kusanagi sword.
Sasuke drew Shin away from them, leaping through the gnarled roots as Shin chased after, laughing, shooting blades after him. Shin's blades zipped all throughout the room, but thankfully Shin and his blades only had eyes for Sasuke.
Sakura's eyes darted down to Orochimaru, who slipped through one of the exits at the far end of the room. He was making his escape.
But first, the wounded.
Sakura dodged her way through Shin and Sasuke's battle. She checked Mio's pulse. She was dead. She then went to Sara, who she expected to be dead too from the amount of blood pooling around her, but there was still a faint sign of life there. Sakura picked Sara up and put her beside Hanma. Karin helped wrap her wounds and Sakura healed her mortal injuries as quickly as possible. It was a rough patch job to keep her from bleeding out; if Sara was joustled much her injuries would split back open.
Hanma pushed Sakura away, saying, "I know a little healing. Get Rei. Please." An uncertain green glow flickered below his hands as he took over tending to Sara.
Sakura grabbed Rei next, who was still trembling on the ground, tears streaking down her face. Sakura moved her to Hanma as well, and she sobbed then, "My mother and my sister. He's taken them both. And now I'm all alone."
"You're not alone," Hanma replied, who took a brief moment from his healing of Sara to squeeze Rei's hand.
Sakura had wasted a few precious minutes by then. "I'm going after Orochimaru," Sakura told Karin before running towards the hallway he escaped through.
Karin let out a frustrated groan. "Wait up! I'm coming too!" She chased after Sakura, Log following quietly behind.
"I thought you can't fight," Sakura said.
"No, not particularly," Karin said. "But I've been useless this entire time and dammit, I have to be of use to Sasuke somehow . I have a long-range ninjutsu that can attack and also seal chakra if I can capture my opponent. If you set Orochimaru up for me, I can restrain him. Then we can figure out how to get him to surrender the scroll in a way that we can use it."
"Got it."
"And you better be careful," Karin warned. "Not only does he have Hashirama cells, he also has Kabuto's DNA. That means he has the bloodline limits of Hashirama, several of the Sound Five, Suigetsu, Jugo, and Zetsu of the Akatsuki. And he has my chakra levels. He will be unlike anything else you've faced."
Sakura sweated. He would be. "Thanks for the warning."
Karin did her best to summarize all of their abilities that she could remember so Sakura might know what to expect. She then added, "But that doesn't mean he's learned how to properly use them all yet. Not even Kabuto has mastered all of them."
They passed through to a metal room covered with haphazard wires, electronics, and foggy giant tubes - rows of them - each one filled with a sleeping boy floating in liquid, connected with tubes. All of them looked near identical, ghostly white, with some variations in their height or weight. But some of them were missing limbs, several were missing their eyes, some covered in puckered surgery scars, and others looked emancipated with tubes going in and out of their chest cavities. One, despite having the body of a ten-year-old child, had one arm grotesquely bigger than the other, like it was meant to be on a man's body.
"These are Shin's clones, made from his teeth," Log answered Sakura's sickened expression as they passed through. "He uses them for spare parts."
Karin's face was grim, but unsurprised. "Orochimaru only had this base for a few years at most," she said. "These clones look far older than that."
"Orochimaru and Shin learned how to rapidly age a growing body in a selective manner," Log answered. "I am only two years old."
"What!? Two!?" Karin sputtered.
"If I seem mature for my age, it is because Shin used his Mangekyo Sharingan to lock me in a genjutsu that felt like years. In it I learned everything on how to function as a human being. It was all I knew until one day I 'woke' up."
At the end of the room a few of the tubes had amorphous blobs - pale creatures with imitations of tiny legs and arms sprouting from their bulging bodies. They each had a single large eye centered in the middle of their mass - a Sharingan - and a gaping mouth below it. They stared sightlessly and unmoving in their tubes. "Artificial creatures created for spying," Log had explained. Sakura shivered.
Past the room of clones, they passed through what looked like another training room, with long-dried blood spatters covering the concrete floor. Thick stone columns evenly covered the entire room, bracing the ceiling above. Some of the columns had chains attached to their bases, and some ended short of the ceiling, looking more like stepping poles for training.
Karin halted them, narrowing her eyes. "Orochimaru, I can sense you here. There's no point trying to surprise us. Come out."
"Ah, Karin. It was foolish of me to think I could hide from you," Orochimaru's voice echoed. He phased out of the side of a column.
Sakura and Log shifted into defensive stances.
"Log, my son, it hurts to see you betray me so. Are you still mad about the curse seal?"
"I wish to keep my body."
Orochimaru clicked his tongue in disappointment. "I see now where I failed you with Shin's genjutsu. Thankfully your younger siblings show more promise in regards to loyalty to family."
Log gritted his teeth, clutching his sword tightly.
Orochimaru's gaze then flickered to Sakura. "Sakura Haruno, the oft forgotten member of Team Kakashi, with no notable heritage to speak of. You are an odd one out here, surrounded by my traitors. What made you forsake your Village to be here, I wonder?"
"That hardly matters."
Orochimaru chuckled, shifting confidently into an offensive stance. "I still remember you from the Forest of Death all those years ago, unable to do a thing but scream for your teammates. I'm interested to see how well Tsunade has trained you; I only caught a glimpse of it during the last war. Unfortunately I would suggest against using too much force here, else you might collapse the entire underground base around us."
"You've been acting awfully sure of yourself despite being cornered," Sakura spat.
Despite Orochimaru's cocksureness, Sakura could see the feverish sweat on his brow, and the tender way he carried himself. There was no way he wasn't rattled by having his hideout attacked when he himself was so weakened. She wondered how much of his hope was placed on the fact that they couldn't kill him if they wanted the scroll.
"Shin will make quick work of Sasuke and mop up the rest of the vermin he brought with," Orochimaru replied. "Even one Rinnegan cannot match the power of fourteen awakened Mangekyo Sharingan, and Shin has been trained on how to counter each of the Rinnegan's powers. Even if their skill is equal, Shin has the greater stamina to outlast him." His murderous gaze then panned the three of them. "And as for you three... don't be mistaken - it is you who are cornered."
Sakura shifted her balance on her feet, fists out and ready.
Orochimaru had haunted Team 7 since the beginning of its conception. Ultimately, through tempting Sasuke's vengeance-addled mind with power, he was the one responsible for severing their fragile team apart for so many painful years. In Orochimaru's meddling plans she had been nothing to him, but here she would make herself the most important thing in the world to him. She would be his downfall.
A/N: For anyone not up to date on Gaiden/Boruto content, Shin, the clones, the spying creatures, and Log all come from them. Since Gaiden/Boruto isn't a thing in this fic, I thought I'd borrow from those stories and reintroduce the characters here as an easy way not to introduce more OCs. (God, I hope I didn't accidentally bloat this with too much going on and too many characters but too late now weeeeee!)
Originally I was going to have Sakura and Sasuke fight Shin while also contending with Orochimaru (distracted by Taka) but that would have been too chaotic in one room with the power levels at play here, and I didn't think we needed basically two extended out combat scenes that don't contribute to the overall plotline, since I want to try and keep this Sasuke mission arc as compact as possible. Decided to chop that fight and trim down the amount of characters that would be contributing to the combat for my sanity lol. I also had an idea of Yumi and Sakura momentarily fighting together because it would be interesting for Sakura to team up with someone she fought before, but decided to cut that too.
I usually like wrapping up chapters pretty nicely rather than ending in a cliffhanger/unfinished scene, but it was a bit unavoidable here. I hoping I'll have the next chapter out much sooner since I'm back into my writing groove. Until next time. Hope you all are doing well!