I've always hated snakes.

Gaara understood the sentiment now more than ever, as he listened to Orochimaru speak. There was an archetype he had learned about during his time with the tanuki, a certain characterization that had been referred to as 'Asebi'. Asebi was a plant, an unassuming thing with quaint white flowers that simply looked pretty to the untrained eye, but Gaara knew from his brief poisons training in Suna that the flowers were toxic and potentially lethal. Similarly so were those of the Asebi archetype: they drew you in, offering gifts, honeyed words, pretty promises...but were inevitably self-serving and detrimental to those they drew in. The Uchiha had already drank of the Asebi nectar, and only time would tell if he would realize it for the poison that it was. Gaara didn't necessarily fault him for being drawn in by Orochimaru. Even the tanuki had warned him about Orochimaru's sort and how to deal with them, especially since, in the grander game of shinobi politics, they were bound to run across them more often than not. The Asebi personality desired power and influence and were good at getting it. Lying was second nature to them, but even more so than lying was their ability to twist the truth to serve their own needs, to use honesty with as much finesse as deceit. Orochimaru didn't lie often, and that was what Sakura needed to learn to navigate. Orochimaru likely would sign Sakura's treaty in exchange for information about navigating the Sharingan, but of course was likely leaving out that signing a treaty didn't necessarily guarantee he'd honor it. Gaara trusted Sakura to know this, though he would still bring up his thoughts with her later. If he had learned anything from the tanuki, Sakura didn't just need a bodyguard. She needed advisors. Sai, to Gaara's secret dismay, had already begun to fill that role before Gaara had even realized it needed filling. (But in his own defense, the two of them both knew that Gaara was the far superior bodyguard.)

Time at the enclave had given them both what they'd needed. Gaara had learned about navigating and understanding people. Sai had learned about killing them. And as Sai clashed with the Uchiha below and Gaara in turn analyzed Orochimaru here, he realized that they'd gotten lucky. He was much more prepared to deal with a 'snake' now than he'd ever been.

I don't know. I still say you should kill him.

Gaara suppressed the desire to chuckle. Some things never changed.

Killing Orochimaru likely would make things easier, if they could attempt it. Karin also exuded Asebi personality at times, but unlike Orochimaru, she clearly wasn't a sociopath. She would be a far more reasonable Otokage at first glance, and also wasn't actively trying to 'become god'. (A sentiment that had made Shukaku snarl in disgust upon Orochimaru's mention.)

Kaguya's power will destroy him or destroy us. You think I'm scary? Try nine of me packed into him.

Gaara was usually hesitant to admit fear. But Orochimaru, with that kind of power? That did scare him.

It didn't seem as though he was very close to success, however, which Shukaku had insisted meant they should strike before he became anymore dangerous. It would be considered a 'public service'. There wasn't any nation that didn't fear Orochimaru in some capacity, so wasn't it just doing the world a favor to get rid of him?

The answer was an unfortunate 'no'. Killing Orochimaru in the middle of treaty negotiations was the antithesis of what they stood for. Killing him without due cause, without the explicit backing of all the allied nations...it could destroy everything they'd built. If Sakura could simply kill whomever she disagreed with, who wouldn't she kill to 'keep the peace'? It would be an alliance raised in fear, and maybe a few of the newly signed on nations had signed on to avoid Sakura's wrath after the Danzo incident, but Sakura had never intended it to go that way. An alliance of mutual respect and understanding. Sakura wasn't just here to try and force Orochimaru to sign a piece of paper. She was here to make him respect her.

That was the game she played, and the odds were stacked against her far more here than anywhere else. They'd all known coming in that they were playing with a loser's hand to start.

The two had stopped talking now, content to watch the spar below. It was a sham of a spar, in a way. Sasuke was avoiding using much chakra so that he might go all out against Sakura, and Sai was avoiding using many of the tricks he'd learned through the Hageshisai in what Gaara figured was a far too subtle attempt to tell Sasuke that he wasn't worth his time. Both were being stubborn and both were being arrogant. It was...a little bit funny. Perhaps the most passive aggressive duel he'd seen in his life.

Sai is drawing it out. Exhausting the Uchiha. Even if he loses, the Uchiha will be too tired to give Sakura a true fight.

And thus, Sakura wouldn't have to show her full capabilities in front of Orochimaru, and Sasuke would still get his spar. That was admittedly clever, though it was becoming more boring by the minute. Gaara let his gaze wander around the room, a habit he'd learned in the tanuki. Memorize your surroundings, memorize the people in them. See how they moved, where they looked, what they were interested in. Orochimaru watched Sasuke with a disgustingly predatory gaze, but that was to be expected. Sakura, too, was intent on the match. And then…

Then there was that other man, Kabuto, who was just as snakeish as his master. Gaara wasn't quite as familiar with him, but he'd heard enough from Sakura to know to be wary. A Konoha spy, which meant he was more than capable of playing up a persona to get in close to others. And right now…

Kabuto was distracted. Very, very distracted.

He hid it well, but Gaara had spent the past few months learning to watch the movement of eyes and the subtle twitches of the body. Kabuto was pretending to watch the match, but like clockwork he kept looking towards a nearby wall...funnily enough, it looked like he was looking at a clock. It was nearing the end of the hour, so...Kabuto was likely expected somewhere, or was managing something time sensitive. Another gross experiment of Orochimaru's? But if so, why hide his worry over the time?

Sakura had her eye on the match. Right now, Gaara decided, he would watch this Kabuto.

His suspicions were confirmed at five minutes to the hour, at which point Kabuto quietly approached Orochimaru and whispered something too quiet for Gaara to hear. With a short bow, Kabuto excused himself. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe it really was just another of Orochimaru's experiments. But Gaara was curious now, and he hadn't learned spying and information gathering from the tanuki just to not use it when something piqued his interest.

He slowly closed one eye, the eye furthest from Orochimaru and out of the man's view. He felt Shukaku's energy rise in tandem with his own, though he really only needed a little bit of energy to connect his optic nerve to his sand. From there, he sent his sand in the thinnest possible cloud out the door, until he could reform his Third Eye and send it after Kabuto.

He was distracted briefly by Orochimaru licking his lips, seen out of the corner of his other eye. Sasuke, it seemed, had just landed a glancing blow on Sai. It wasn't much; Sai had come home with far worse. Gaara glanced down just in time to see Sai land a blow on Sasuke in turn. Both were going for nonlethal, it seemed, but that didn't mean they weren't aiming to make a few scars.

He should have used poisons and knocked the idiot out.

No, Gaara thought with a smile. That would have just pissed Sasuke off later.

His Third Eye was getting an interesting glimpse of the tunnels beneath Otogakure, and Gaara did his best to remember every twist and turn, every door that he came across. He could have Sai map it later, for their convenience, especially if Kabuto was heading somewhere interesting. But the most interesting thing that Gaara saw wasn't Kabuto at all, but Karin.

He doubted Kabuto had noticed. Even Gaara hadn't expected to catch a glimpse of the Uzumaki girl in the vents of all places. But it seemed as though he wasn't the only one monitoring Kabuto, and that alone was something of a relieving thought. He'd have to question her about it later.

Kabuto eventually came to a halt at a door. He looked both ways before opening it and entering, and Gaara sent his sand slinking in under the door after him. The room looked more like a closet than anything interesting. There were boxes of medical equipment, but they were dusty, likely not used in some time.

Kabuto moved to the middle of the room before kneeling. Then, to Gaara's surprise, something appeared in the room.

It looked like a warped version of a man, but not solid, more like a Bunshin...but unlike a bunshin, this image seemed to flicker like a flame and showed very little detail other than what looked to be two eyes.

"Lord Sasori." Kabuto announced. "Sakura Haruno and the Jinchuuriki have arrived in Otogakure."

Gaara had to stop himself from freezing up. Sasori, that was a name he'd learned well in the recent months. Sasori of the Red Sand, who'd murdered the Third Kazekage, who'd mastered the art of puppetry before turning against his village and going to join Akatsuki.

Kabuto was a damned Akatsuki spy and he was leading one of the most lethal men alive right to them.

"Finally." Sasori replied, his voice heavy with a distortion that Gaara didn't quite understand. "She kept us waiting for far too long. We will proceed with the extraction of the Jinchuuriki. Ensure Orochimaru does not interfere."

"And Haruno?"

"Deidara will deal with her personally. We will take the Jinchuuriki and she will be eliminated. You may do what you wish with the spare."

"Understood."

The visage of Sasori disappeared, and Kabuto rose to his feet. Before the man could turn around, Gaara pulled his eye out of the room and dismissed his connection.

This was...this was bad.

The first and most pressing matter being that Akatsuki knew where they were and were actively coming for them. Sasori, it seemed, had been waiting for them to arrive. This wasn't as much of a surprise as Gaara would have liked it to be; Sakura was trying to be transparent about her motives so as not to take uninformed countries off guard with her arrival. But the way Kabuto had spoken to Sasori made it seem as though they'd planned on their arrival here at Oto, which suggested one of two things.

The first, and least likely, was that Kabuto was working for Sasori in truth and was merely pretending to work for Orochimaru, using the Sannin's resources to aid Akatsuki. Gaara doubted Kabuto could have kept this secret for so long without Orochimaru getting suspicious, but it was a possibility he couldn't discount. Following this scenario suggested that Orochimaru and Akatsuki were something at odds, which had a bit of sense. Orochimaru was ex-Akatsuki, implying he broke up with them for a reason, and maybe Akatsuki was wary of getting Orochimaru's ire turned on them in the middle of 'extracting the Jinchuuriki'. He couldn't imagine that scenario ending well for Kabuto; the instant Orochimaru learned that Akatsuki were moving in his village behind his back, he'd know there was a traitor and root them out. Maybe Kabuto was prepared to die for Sasori, but Gaara knew most people had an instinct of self-preservation. Plus, Orochimaru wasn't stupid. The odds of him not knowing about Kabuto's connection were low, too low to linger on.

The second option was that Orochimaru knew about Kabuto's connection and was using it to his advantage. This, Gaara could see making sense. He weasels information about the Sharingan from Sakura, signs her treaty, and then hands her over to Akatsuki. No need to worry about the treaty if the ambassadors were dead, and perhaps that helps him make amends with Akatsuki. Of course, Kabuto didn't exactly suggest that Sasori should delay, but with whatever that technique was, Gaara got the sense that Sasori wasn't exactly here yet...simply close enough to send a weird transmission.

It was something that Sakura's visions should have warned them about, and yet Sakura was still stuck dreaming about some stupid letter from some unknown shinobi about an unknown force. Gaara found himself resenting the odd religion at times. He wasn't quite sure what he thought of Jashin overall, but right now he was simply annoyed.

And then there was the matter of Karin. She was spying on Kabuto as well, which meant that it was possible she knew about this as well and kept it from them. But why cozy up with them if she knew Akatsuki was coming to see them dead?

Not enough information, brat. And we can't afford to waste time screwing around.

Shukaku was right. Here they were, watching Sasuke and Sai spar like it was a casual hobby, when their enemies were getting closer by the second. They needed time to prepare, but on the chance that Orochimaru had set this up as a trap for them, Gaara couldn't let the man know that he'd caught on.

He put on an air of boredom, shifting against the railing so that he rested his chin against his hand. Then, he spoke, letting his voice carry across the room.

"This is a waste of time. Stop playing around with him and get this over with."

He saw Sakura shoot him a confused glance, but ignored it. He'd have time to explain later. Sai, too, looked momentarily confused, but thankfully seemed to catch on.

"Ah, we can't let Gaara get too bored, can we? You know better than anyone what happens if he gets upset, don't you Sasuke?"

"Fine."

Sasuke's eyes flashed red, and the boy lunged forward with renewed speed and vigor. Admittedly, Gaara could see that even Sai couldn't keep up with the Uchiha's onslaught. That was perhaps expected; Sai had really only had about three months of aggressive kenjutsu training, while Sasuke had been with Orochimaru for over a year now. That, coupled with the Sharingan's enhancement to his reflexes, made Sasuke an opponent that would be far too formidable if it was just a kenjutsu match. It was about another minute before Sai was swept onto the ground with a well placed kick, halted from further action by Sasuke's blade at his throat.

"You're done." Sasuke announced. "Sakura next."

"Ah, I suppose you are the superior with a blade." Sai replied, showing off his fake smile. "Perhaps I shall ask you for some tips in the future."

Sasuke grunted in response before sheathing his blade and turning to face the stands above. (Not even offering a hand to help Sai up, Gaara noted, which bothered him. Hadn't Orochimaru even taught the boy manners?) Sai stood on his own, reaching into his pocket to pull out his notebook and…

Oh fuck.

Looks like Uchiha might end up getting pissed after all.

"Your style is reminiscent of a popular Konoha style." Sai commented casually, using his very unique paint brush to 'write' in his notebook. "But there are some moderations that remind me of an old Suna dueling technique. You've been teaching him quite a bit, haven't you, Lord Orochimaru?"

"I would spare nothing from my Sasuke." Orochimaru answered in turn, sporting a smirk. Gaara couldn't tell if it was simple pride in the compliment, or if he'd caught on to Sai's trick.

"How unfortunate, then, that you didn't teach him not to turn his back on an opponent that hasn't officially surrendered."

Sai brought the brush to his mouth, pushing the button that allowed it to quickly morph into a hidden blowgun. Sasuke moved to react, but not even he could draw a blade quick enough to stop a small dart from piercing his skin. He yanked the dart out, eyes spinning red as he prepared to fight again, but Sai simply waited with a smile.

"What I've just injected is a diluted mixture of fugu poison. It's a very potent neurotoxin at high doses, but the Hageshisai have made a mixture that is far less effective. Still, without an antidote, you'll be paralyzed for at least a day."

"Bastard!" Sasuke hissed, gripping at the spot where the dart had hit. Gaara watched as a black mark suddenly spread out from Sasuke's body...the curse mark Sakura had spoken of? It seemed to be reacting to the poison, even staving it off. Sakura had learned to treat that particular poison at the enclave, and those struck with it were usually down within seconds.

The Uchiha boy's become a little monster since we saw him last, hasn't he?

Orochimaru was shaking, Gaara realized, though it took a moment for him to figure out that the Sannin was laughing. "Looks like my Sasuke needs a bit more training than I thought." The man spoke between chuckles. "What a foolish mistake, predator turning its back on cornered prey. He should have known better."

"By Jashin, they're both idiots." Sakura cursed aloud. Below, Sasuke's mark had fully spread across his body, but even the power of the curse wasn't enough to stave off Sai's poison. Sasuke fell to the ground in a rigid slump just as Sakura pushed herself over the railing to land beside him. She pulled out a small scroll, within which were many vials of antidote to the various poisons Sai had brought with him. "Even if I give him the antidote, he won't be fit for anymore fighting today."

"Whoops." Sai answered with a shrug. "I suppose he should have taken me more seriously."

"He is going to kill you later."

"Next time I'll use a stronger poison."

"How about no poisons, we're here on diplomatic mission!"

The two continued to bicker as Sakura began to inject antidote into the paralyzed Uchiha. Gaara couldn't help but sigh with relief. Despite Sakura's anger, and despite the fact that Sasuke would no doubt be raring for a rematch, things had been finished quickly. If they retired now, he could warn Sakura about the Akatsuki, maybe even tell Sasuke why he'd insisted the match be ended so quickly.

Would the brat aid us against Akatsuki?

Surely...seeing as his brother is of their number. It would be for personal gain to capture one.

I suppose that's true.

"I'll send Karin over to tend to him." Orochimaru commented dryly, looking towards Gaara as he did. "Perhaps it is good you arrived here. It has shown me where my training is lacking. I'm surprised it wasn't you that desired to fight the boy."

Gaara simply shook his head. No...that time had passed. Gaara didn't want to fight Sasuke. If anything, he wanted nothing to do with him. Sasuke Uchiha...Gaara had simply lost interest.

And after everything he'd done to Sakura…

"How curious." Orochimaru answered. "So it is true that your sloppy seal was fixed. Shukaku's bloodlust no longer steeps the air. A pity. You were a most interesting weapon."

The Sannin turned to leave, but as he did, Gaara felt Shukaku's energy writhe within him, until Shukaku was speaking through him in a hefty growl.

"I'd remember your own advice, Snake. Don't turn your back on us."

Orochimaru stopped his retreat for a single second, glancing over his shoulder. He still had a smug smile on his face, but for a moment, the briefest of moments, Gaara knew what he'd seen.

They'd made the man shiver.

"I cannot believe you turned your back on an opponent, Sasuke, you absolute idiot. I cannot even begin to tell you how badly this fucked up your chakra coils, it's going to take at least a week before you're back to normal. Why the fuck did you try and use your curse mark to stave it off?"

Gaara squinted as he took on the full force of Karin's lecture. Much like Naruto, this girl was loud and she could rant for seemingly hours. At the very least, the lecture wasn't directed at him.

"And you!" Karin turned to jab Sai in the chest. Sai'd been keeping a very smug look on his face since the battle; perhaps it had been a cheap shot, but Sasuke wouldn't be able to live it down, even if Sai never won a match against him again. "That was a cheap move-"

"Shinobi." Sai countered. "He asked for a fight and I gave one. If he can't dodge a little dart, he's not ready to face Sakura."

"And that's not the point, we need him! You have no idea what's going to happen here in the next week!"

"Akatsuki."

Karin froze, Sakura froze, everyone seemed to freeze as Gaara spoke up. Gaara simply met Karin's eyes.

"You know about it. Time to talk."

"Y-yeah, I know about it! I was going to talk about it once we were all together, but this one had to go picking a fight!" She rapped Sasuke's forehead with her knuckles, but all Sasuke could do at the moment was grumble in response. His motion was still limited, even with the antidote. "Akatsuki's been planning on moving in here for a while now to try and nab you. They'd expected you three months ago but you threw them off when you stopped in Yu for so long. They've been taking mercenary missions in the area ever since, waiting for you to come out of hiding. I think they even reconned in Yu but wherever you were at, they certainly couldn't find you."

"You could have led with that when I first got here!" Sakura protested.

"Yeah, and then you would have run off. I've got a plan, I've had a plan ready, and that plans involves all of us working together to get what we want. Sasuke gets someone to interrogate about his brother, you get help dealing with the S-ranked criminals that want you dead, and I get to enact my first step towards taking over this country."

"You still! Could have led with that when I got here!"

"It is not my fault the Uchiha moron over here has a single brain cell left in his head and jumps into fights the first chance he gets! And I can't risk Orochimaru hearing about any of this!"

"He could be listening now!"

"Silencing seals on the room, look at the walls."

"Ah, I was wondering about those." Sai stood up, pulling out his notebook, this time to actually sketch, as he looked at the designs that snaked along the walls and across the door to the room. "I'd heard the Uzumaki were sealmasters but I've unfortunately only met one before you, and he barely even knew what a seal was. Would you be interested in discussing techniques with me?"

"Sai, now is not the time." Sakura replied through gritted teeth. "How many days do we have until Akatsuki gets here? Or is it hours?"

"No idea." Karin admitted. "Kabuto didn't mention."

"...what does Kabuto have to do with this?"

"Oh yeah, that bastard's been playing double agent for months, maybe even years now. Sasori thinks Kabuto is playing spy for him on Orochimaru, Orochimaru thinks Kabuto is spying on Sasori for him. It's a hilarious mess, I don't think anyone knows who Kabuto is working for, least of all Kabuto."

"Great. Just great." Sakura threw up her hands as she began to pace the room. "So Kabuto's an enemy no matter how we look at it, Orochimaru will probably let Akatsuki storm in and take whatever they want, and we don't know how much time we have until we're fighting for our lives!"

"That's why we have to follow my plan." Karin insisted. "Only problem is Sasuke here being out of commission. I was counting on having him."

"...fuck it."

Sakura sat herself down in front of Sasuke before shooting a glare at Karin. "What is about to happen stays here, got it?"

"...I got it."

"Good. Sasuke, don't move a muscle."

Sakura put one hand against Sasuke's forehead, the other reaching up to touch her amulet. Gaara recognized the stance. Her breathing began to even out, and Sakura held very, very still. Within moments, her skin began to darken, strange patterns spiraling out across her body until her skin was a mismatch of black marks. She was calling upon natural energy, using Jashin's power to heal. Gaara saw her grit her teeth as she began to work her chakra into Sasuke's body. Jashin's power allowed her to heal injury...so long as she could suffer through the pain the injury caused. Sasuke wasn't in much pain now, granted, but the fugu poison was admittedly nasty, and if Karin had been correct about the damage to Sasuke's chakra coils, that meant the injuries wouldn't be easy to fix.

He saw Sasuke's eyes widen slightly at Sakura's drastic change, but thankfully he did not move. Instead, the whole room went quiet as Sakura worked. A minute later, Sakura released her technique with a sharp inhale of breath, causing the markings to quickly recede from her skin. As she did, Gaara saw Sasuke tentatively move his hands.

"...healing?" He asked, confused. "How? A kekkei-genkai?"

"No." Sakura answered, out of breath. "A somewhat generous god is the best answer I can give you. Can you manipulate your chakra?"

Another moment passed, but Sasuke nodded. "Yes."

"Good. Now, Karin...you mentioned a plan?"

Karin looked as baffled as Sasuke, but managed to put her thoughts aside as Sakura addressed her. "Right, the plan. This changes things a little bit. I'll need to talk skill sets with each of you, but I've got the bare bones ready to go and build upon. The two Akatsuki members that will be coming our way are Deidara and Sasori. Explosions and poisons. If my assessment is correct, Deidara will attempt to separate Gaara and Sakura from each other. Bombs don't work well against sand, which means he'll probably try to take Sakura down while Sasori neutralizes Gaara, probably similar to the way Sai neutralized Sasuke today. So Sasuke, I guess this was a bit of a trial run. Sasori's poisons are going to be way more lethal than Sai's. If you end up facing him-"

"I'll be more prepared." Sasuke grumbled.

"Sakura, do you think you'd be able to play poison control if you faced Sasori?"

"Potentially, but it depends. If it's fast acting, my technique may not be quick enough." Sakura answered. "I can't bring people back from the dead. If someone's gone, they're gone."

"Still, you've got the best chance of being a secret weapon against Sasori. If his poisons won't work, that'll make him more manageable for whomever is fighting him. Whatever they try, Sakura, you need to be on the team facing him."

"Got it." Sakura nodded. "What about Orochimaru? Is he going to just stand back and let us fight, or should we expect interference?"

"Kabuto was ordered to prevent interference." Gaara pointed out. Karin shot him a look, to which Gaara shrugged in turn. "You weren't the only one watching him today."

"Right. Sheesh. I guess I should be grateful you're competent. Anyway, Gaara's right, Kabuto's been ordered to prevent interference. Which means we theoretically won't have to worry about Orochimaru."

"But you mentioned this being your first step towards taking over the country? Doesn't that mean Orochimaru needs to be involved one way or another?"

"Right again." Karin smiled. "Now pay attention closely, all of you."

She drew the three of them closer, pulling out a large scroll and unraveling it on the ground in front of them. The scroll was blank until she bit her thumb and let blood drip onto it, upon which the scroll began to reveal a full set of writing and drawings within.

"Oh." Sakura said with a grin. "Oh, you are thinking ahead."

"Yup." Karin answered. "Like I said, pay close attention. This is where the plan gets interesting."