Meh… nothing to say right now. A few things I think you should know though; Sasuke doesn't have the Sharingan yet in this story, Tsunade and Jiraiya used to work with Orochimaru rather than being in a ninja team with him, I fail as an authoress cuz I didn't add enough SasuNaru in this chapter ;-;, I'm glad most of you liked the ShuKit stuff x3 (if you didn't at least I didn't get b—ched at), I know Itachi's stronger than Orochimaru but Itachi just made a stupid mistake and got caught (work with me here), there's freaky OroIta in this chapter, I'm a yaoi hentai aaanndd… ok that's it.
There will be no review corner this time, sorry. But OH MY GOODNESS, YAAAR! –Charges with a flying-tackle-glomp at her reviews- I LOVE YOU ALL! –huggles-
Recap:
"O-Oi! What was that for?" Shukaku asked, oblivious to the reason for Kitsune's fluster.
"N-Never mind! L-let's just get going, shall we?" She said quickly standing and beginning to walk down the hall.
"Kitsune?" Shukaku called before she got too far
"What?" She snapped.
"We were heading that way." He said pointing in the direction opposite of the direction Kitsune had trudged off in.
"I knew that!"
Good Night My Knight!
Chapter 23: Wordless
Kabuto watched from the shadows as the trio moved down the darkening corridor. Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura had been chatting away (well, Naruto had been) as if nothing was wrong with walking around in the depths of Orochimaru's hideout. Kabuto snickered… how wrong they were.
He'd been following Sakura and so when she met up with Sasuke and Naruto Kabuto could hardly believe his luck. The only thing he couldn't believe was that the trio couldn't sense his presence. He'd accidentally let his chakra become unmasked for a few seconds when he slipped into the water. His stomach dropped at the thought of being discovered but Sakura went right on yelling at Naruto and Sasuke had kept his hands in his pockets and kept trudging on next to them. The trio was unaware of him lurking only a few feet behind them. Kabuto smirked at the sense of power he felt right now. The feeling that there fate was basically in his hands. Had it not been Orochimaru's order to not kill them then he would have done so… killed them off one by one.
A sudden light gasp escaped his lips and he held his head. What was he thinking? Shaking off his thoughts he came to the conclusion that he'd been spending way too much time around Orochimaru. His blood-lust had risen ever since he'd joined with Orochimaru and Kabuto was now beginning to see Orochimaru within his self. It was beginning to disturb him. Kabuto's eyes traveled back over to the trio. The hyper blond had already gone on to the topic of kicking Orochimaru's ass when they found him. Shaking his head, Kabuto didn't believe it could be done. Especially not by a ground of silly kids. Then again, Kabuto had yet to see these kids fight.
"--And after were done kicking Orochi-baka's ass I'm gonna go straight back to kitchens and order a BIG bowl of ramen!"
"Che, dobe. All you ever think about is ramen don't you?" Sasuke scoffed.
"Iruka makes good ramen!" Naruto protested.
Sasuke simply rolled his eyes and realized that he hadn't scanned the area in front of them yet. He stopped suddenly.
"Eh, what is it Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked noticing his sudden halt.
"I wanted to check the area a little better than we have been."
"What do you mean, Sasuke-teme? How can we check the area any better than just keeping our guard up? It's not like we have anything special to help us out."
"I know that, dobe. Just shut up and give me a second ok?"
Naruto grumbled something and crossed his arms but remained silent afterwards. Sasuke closed his eyes and concentrated on the noises around him. He heard Naruto and Sakura's light breathing mixed with his own in the area just around him. The slight flow of water and… something else? He turned around; his eyes open now, and stared into the darkness behind them. He could see the last light they'd past a bit behind them now, at least twenty feet. But it wasn't the flames of the light he heard. It sounded like… breathing.
Sasuke slowly began to move towards the darkest area before the light. He kept his eyes opened wide and looked back and forth across the surface of the water to the top of the tunnel. Nothing… but he still thought he heard that breathing. He looked over to the wall… it almost sounded like it was coming from… there? No… it couldn't be but never the less he started towards the dirt wall and slowly moved closer to the breathing sound.
Kabuto was hiding behind a sheet made to blend him in with the wall. Sasuke couldn't see him now. Not with this and while he was masking his chakra. The only thing giving him away was his damn breathing. He waited until Sasuke looked over to the area Kabuto was standing it before Kabuto sucked in his breath and held it there. Sasuke began to move towards him, ever so slowly. Kabuto began to feel that his need for air would be great today. Sasuke's nose was inches from Kabuto's and the younger stared strait through the medical nin into what Sasuke thought was dirt wall. One wrong move and Kabuto would find himself in battle with three people he knew little about. Sasuke finally seemed content and moved back away from where Kabuto stood.
"There's nothing…" Sasuke said shaking his head and moving back to where Sakura and Naruto were waiting.
"Good! Can we go now? This water is seriously starting to make me itch in places you don't want to know about--"
"NARUTO!" –Whack!-
"Iiiitaaaiii, Sakura-chan! I didn't name any of the places!"
"Ugh."
…xoxoxoxoxoxox…
How could he have been captured so easily? He was an Uchiha. Uchiha Itachi. Yet here Orochimaru had captured him, no problem. Orochimaru wasn't even on the same level as he was. How could he have let him self be pulled in to that snakes trap? After Orochimaru caught Itachi he had knocked him out. When Itachi had woken up only a few minutes ago, he couldn't sense Orochimaru close by. Itachi had been chained down with chakra bands that restricted his movement. There was no escaping this hell-hole for now. His sharingan flickered in and out of life as he felt the chakra bands not only holding him down, but also slowly eating away at his chakra. He cursed himself yet again for stupidly falling into Orochimaru's trap. He found he could no longer keep the Sharingan activated and that was when he heard Orochimaru's voice from behind him.
"So you've finally been drained of most of your chakra, ne Itachi-kun?"
'How long has he been behind me!' Itachi thought suddenly turning his head to better see behind him.
"Orochimaru…"
"Haha, don't look so angry." Orochimaru said walking to the front of Itachi.
Itachi only continued to glare at the snake man. Orochimaru sensed Itachi's chakra being drained further and knew that Itachi was about ANBU level now.
"You're eight tenths drained of your power now, Itachi-kun…" Orochimaru said dangerously as he walked closer to the powerless Uchiha, "I don't think trying anything now will be in your favor. You're already below my self. I would have no problem defeating you in this state."
"Is your plan to simply drain my power until I die?" Itachi asked in a bored kind of voice despite the danger he was in.
"My, my… where's the fun in that?"
Orochimaru came dangerously close to Itachi's face and gave a dark grin. When he spoke again, Itachi felt his breath pouring down the side of his face and over his ear and shuddered in disgust.
"I'm going to make you so weak until you have the strength of a new-born child. Then I'm going to break you as revenge for throwing me out of the castle."
"You brought it upon your self, you selfish bastard."
Orochimaru's fist connected with Itachi's gut.
"You won't be saying such things when you're screaming my name."
Itachi flinched at the contact of Orochimaru's fist and coughed up a small amount of blood. The blood spilled from the corners of his mouth as he tried to hold it back and Orochimaru smiled his twisted smile. Leaning in only slightly more his tongue slithered out of his mouth and slowly licked up the trail of blood. Itachi breathed heavily and tried to turn his head away but it was no use… he could feel his power slipping away even quicker now. Orochimaru finished 'cleaning' Itachi's face and backed away with a devilish smirk.
"Nine tenths… Itachi-kun…"
…xoxoxoxoxoxox…
"-huff- I –huff- I think we finally lost the –huff- pesky bastards." Jiraiya spat as he leaned up against a wall to catch his breath.
"Let's hope so…" Tsunade sighed.
They certainly weren't as young as they used to be… (Anukis: -gets hit with a shoe thrown by Tsunade-) OW! Stupid old hag! (Tsunade: -glares-)... Er, eheh… -sweat drop- Anywho…
Just running from those skeletons had worn them out. They'd tried different Jutsu's against them but nothing seemed to be working. The skeletons were being controlled by some sort of chakra; obviously the idea of them being controlled by strings like puppets was out of the question. When the two Sennin could breathe properly again they set off at a quick pace deeper into Orochimaru's lair. They could feel the blood-thirsty power of Orochimaru not far ahead from the hall that they were running it. It was only a matter of time before they found him. As Jiraiya ran towards where they felt Orochimaru's chakra, he suddenly felt a smaller chakra as well.
"Ne, Tsunade, do you feel that?"
"Feel what?"
"That other chakra, baka. It's in the same place as Orochimaru but it… it feels like… Itachi? When would he have gotten here though?"
"Who knows. Let's be careful. I don't think it's Itachi though. Itachi is stronger than Orochimaru…"
"But it feels like--"
"Shut up. Let's just go see."
"Mask your chakra."
"I know. I'm not a baka like you, baka."
"Who's the baka?"
"Shh! You want to give away our position?"
Jiraiya made a face and became silent as they carefully approached the area from which Orochimaru's chakra seemed to be coming. Soon enough they saw a door up ahead and Tsunade began to walk slightly faster now that she had her target in mind. She only got a few steps though before Jiraiya suddenly grabbed her arm and yanked her back.
"Ow!" She let out softly.
She sent Jiraiya a look as if to say 'What the hell was that for?' and Jiraiya only gave her a look before pointing up on the ceiling where Tsunade had been about to walk. Tsunade stared at the ceiling looking around at the dirt in confusion. She turned back to him with a questioning look and he only rolled his eyes and walked carefully towards the spot. Doing a few hand symbols he punched the ground and blue chakra flowed from his arms up around till it hit a point in the ceiling. A red flame suddenly burst from the point and an open scroll fell down. Jiraiya picked it up and handed it to Tsunade.
Looking at the scroll she suddenly realized, 'This… this is! Orochimaru... not even I could sense it. Jiraiya and Orochimaru are probably the only two who can sense this. After all… they did make it up themselves.'
Tsunade looked up to Jiraiya who scratched his nose sheepishly and shrugged. He knew Tsunade probably hated him right now for making the stupid thing with Orochimaru. It was a long time ago when Orochimaru worked with the two that Jiraiya had this silly idea of making the perfect binding jutsu. He went to Orochimaru to help and surprisingly Orochimaru had agreed. They had worked two and a half weeks making that jutsu until it was perfect. Tsunade was pissed when Jiraiya tested it on her and demanded her to go out with him. Ah… let's just say Jiraiya was crawling away when Tsunade broke out of the Jutsu with her super-human strength (and only Tsunade could ever pull a feat such as that).
Jiraiya let out a small grin as he thought back to when Orochimaru hadn't been so power hungry. Things had defiantly changed. Tsunade woke him from his memories when she punched his arm lightly and nodded her head at him so that they could move on. Jiraiya nodded back and the two continued towards the door. The chakra that Jiraiya had felt before, he noticed, was now even weaker than before… maybe an Academy Student level.
They had reached the door without any further problems. The only thing left now was to carefully open the door so that Orochimaru wouldn't know they were there. Jiraiya's hands softly grasped the door handle and in slow patient movements he cracked open the door. Through the crack they could see Itachi chained down with chakra bands. His head hung low and his chakra drained quickly. Jiraiya suddenly felt the urge to jump through the door and get him out before it was too late but the sight of Orochimaru suddenly stopped him.
Orochimaru approached Itachi and the bands disappeared from sight. Itachi slightly opened his eyes as Orochimaru crouched down to look at Itachi's face. A pale white hand reached out and grabbed Itachi's chin, forcefully lifting his head so that Itachi could look into the hate and lust filled eyes better.
"So Itachi-kun… feeling more obedient now?" Orochimaru cackled as Itachi struggled to speak, "I thought so…"
Dropping Itachi's chin he stood up and crossed his arms as he looked down at the elder Uchiha. A smirk covered Orochimaru's face.
"You know… now maybe if Sasuke-kun proves to fail me in my plan, I can use you instead."
'His plan?' Tsunade, Jiraiya and Itachi thought almost at the same time.
Orochimaru's lips twisted upwards even further as he saw Itachi trying to move, trying to get away so he could recover his strength.
"No use trying to escape me Itachi-kun. You're under my control now. I can't do as I please with you and you can't even lift a finger against me."
Tsunade's breath hitched as she watched Orochimaru lick his lips as he moved Itachi rather roughly to the ground. The Uchiha glared with all he had in him at the snake.
"O-Orochi… you bas-bastard…"
"Oh? So you can speak now?" Orochimaru frowned slightly, "Even so, it's still only a little… better get this over with quick then, ne?"
Orochimaru sat heavily on Itachi's hips and leaned down to whisper in his ear, "You'd like me to say that… but I'm going to make your suffering last."
Before Itachi could try to snap at Orochimaru, Jiraiya's hands flew together and he began to make a few hand symbols. He threw his hands to the ground and suddenly the room around the four became pink and mussel like. Jiraiya and Tsunade burst into where Orochimaru and Itachi lay.
"Damn you." Orochimaru hissed as he looked up to see his intruders.
"Get off him." Jiraiya warned.
Orochimaru said nothing but instead whipped out a kunai and pressed it against Itachi's throat.
"I don't think so, Jiraiya." Orochimaru said with a frown.
"Orochimaru you bastard!" Tsunade yelled grinding her teeth.
"It's not my fault you two were too late." Orochimaru said, his sadistic smirk coming back into view.
Jiraiya glared at Orochimaru. Orochimaru felt the ground beneath him sink slightly and looked down to see that Itachi had been covered in a type of protective bubble and swallowed into the mussel-type coverings. Itachi's form disappeared from beneath Orochimaru and Itachi soon reappeared beside Tsunade and Jiraiya.
"Tsunade. Take care of him." Jiraiya ordered.
Tsunade's eyes still burned with a want to kick Orochimaru's ass but she cooled off and nodded as she looked over to where Itachi lay. Tsunade began healing his wounds and helping to raise his chakra by giving him some of her own.
"Orochimaru… your opponent is me now." Jiraiya said as he glared at Orochimaru.
"So it would seem." The snake master said as he rose from his place on the floor, "I have been waiting to fight you for a while actually Jiraiya."
Jiraiya kept his guard up as Orochimaru stood and looked at him coldly.
"Don't disappoint me…"
…xoxoxoxoxoxox…
Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura had managed to finally make it out of the water and now they trudged in their wet clothes towards what they hoped to be, closer to Orochimaru. The hall they were now in was cold but it felt even colder with their wet clothes.
"You know what?" Naruto suddenly spoke.
"What?" Sakura urged.
"We could have just used our chakra to walk over all that water…" Naruto whined.
"And how would that help us mask our chakra, dobe?" Sasuke asked annoyed.
"Shut up, teme! It would have been a lot better than getting so damn wet. You said yourself there was no one around." Naruto pointed out.
"So? Just because we can't sense or see someone doesn't mean they can't sense or see us. We had to walk through the water to keep ourselves hidden better."
"Geez… this is stupid." Naruto scoffed crossing his arms and trying to keep warm.
"You didn't have to come." Sasuke snapped.
"Psh! Like hell! And let you take all the glory of kicking Orochimaru's ass? I don't think so…"
"Baka! This isn't some sort of game."
Naruto immaturely stuck his tongue out at Sasuke and squinted his eyes until they looked like they were closed.
"Yeah. Doing that to Orochimaru will really make him scared." Sasuke said rolling his eyes.
"Bastard! I swear if I didn't think we might need your help on this mission I would have--"
"You two! Knock it off!" Sakura suddenly yelled silencing both of the boys.
"H-Hai… Sakura-chan." Naruto said with a sheepish laugh.
"This is no time for you two to be arguing. If you two haven't noticed, which I doubt you have… we're being followed." Sakura's voice was low and Naruto and Sasuke could tell she was being serious.
"By who?" Sasuke asked softly.
"I don't know."
"How did you…?"
"I focused my chakra into a line a few yards back and masked it. Someone ran into that line and broke it. We've been being followed for a while most likely. There were no other ways into or out of that tunnel for a while." Sakura glanced behind her and stared into the darkness.
"Show yourself. We know you're there." Sakura said loud enough for Kabuto to hear.
He sighed and pushed his glasses up his nose a little.
"I've been caught." He said with a small smirk, "Nice to meet you Sakura-chan, Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun. I'm Yakushi Kabuto."
End Chapter 23
Forgive my stupidity and failure but… ;-; I'm out of ideas right now. I know this chapter isn't as long as you probably hoped and some of you probably have questions along the lines of 'OMGWTFBBQ!' but right now. Eh. I'm actually kind of debating what to do with the ending. The idea I have is kinda sad and I don't want to have a sad ending but it would go with the manga more . mehbeh... gah! I don't want to give it away so I'll just shut up :x. Moving on; I wasn't going to say anything about it but it's eating away at me so –huff- sorry for the long time with out updating. I just didn't feel like writing. Marching Band starts next week and so I'll probably have even less time to write but I really want to get this story done before school starts (I tend to not write as well when I'm in school . I don't know why). So… since Marching Band might be an easier time to write for methan I expect, thenhopefully this story will be done by the end of this month. DO NOT quote me on that though cuz I'm just hoping (notice that I'm rambling on and not starting the next chapter right now… yeah… don't count on it).
One quick last note. I am so sorry for making Itachi so freakin' weak. I told you I couldn't write him for crap! He's my favorite character, you'd expect me to have his whole bad-ass thing down pat but I don't and it's just cuz I fail like that. Don't worry though, he'll be kicking some arse soon enough (I think). Hopefully I didn't scar anyone too badly with the OroIta stuff xD. It was sexy but sort of er… creepy as hell.
So… off I go. Be safe, look both ways when crossing the street, eat lots of good food, have fun and er… peace o.o.
Anukis
