Chapter 2 – Beginnings
Sasuke woke suddenly from his fitful sleep, his right had around the grip of a kunai, his left already reaching for shuriken from his pouch on the small table next to his "bed". He relaxed as he realized where he was, and that he was alone. Sinking back onto the bare stone slab that served as a mattress, he peered into the darkness, remembering what his room looked like lit.
A roughly hewn eight foot by ten foot chamber carved out of solid rock. The ceiling domed slightly, the tool marks clearly evident. A single torch bracket by the door, holding a stub of wood topped in oiled rags and reeds. The "furniture" was plain. His bed was simply a block of stone that hadn't been carved out to make empty space in the room. His "table" was the same, just somewhat smaller.
When Kabuto had led him here a few hours before, he hadn't voiced a complaint; he wasn't about to show any weakness in front of Orochimaru's henchman. He had simply surveyed the room with all the contempt he could muster into his expression, clearly showing that he thought the accommodations beneath him. Kabuto had grinned seeing his reaction to the room.
"Get used to it, Sasuke-kun. A shinobi must make the best of any and every situation." Kabuto moved into the small room and gave Sasuke a mocking tour. "That," he pointed to the larger of the two stone blocks, "is your bed, and that," his attention shifted to the smaller of the blocks, "is your table. I hope you find your room comfortable, and I advise you get what rest you can, as Orochimaru-sama ordered. You'll likely need it tomorrow." Kabuto left the room, still smiling, and shut the door behind him.
Sasuke waited for a slow count of ten to be sure that the infuriating man was gone before letting out a low curse and burying a kunai and three shuriken into the "table". "I'm going to have that man's head…right after I feel the life leave my brother's broken body," Sasuke growled to the empty room. I thought I was valued, treasured. What is this?This room is a joke, I have no need, or want, to be pampered but this is ridiculous. They are going out of their way to make my life difficult. They are trying to break me. Hmph, well we'll see about that.
He quietly went to the bed and sat down, thinking. If Kabuto was saying that he needed his rest for tomorrow, at least that meant he would be starting his training, starting to learn how to kill Itachi. With that comforting thought he'd lowered himself onto the stone and tried to sleep.
But sleep hadn't come easily, as was to be expected on a pointlessly uncomfortable bed and in an unfamiliar and more than a little hostile situation. Now(,) he was awake again, for what felt like the hundredth time. Sleeping and waking so repeatedly was making his head feel as if his brain had been replaced by sand. Deciding to give up on sleep Sasuke sat up and dispelled the Genjutsu that he had laid over the torch to sink the room into darkness. The flickering light of the torch illuminated the room, revealing a scroll on his table that had not been there when he had gone to sleep. Strange, I have traps all over that door, I'm sure no one has been in here, and yet there is a scroll. Perhaps Kabuto is as good as Orochimaru claims.
Moving to his table Sasuke reached for the scroll…and paused. As his hand approached the scroll, he could feel the residues if chakra around it. He grinned as he activated his Sharingan. The grin slid off of his face as he saw the chakra around the scroll and, because of his bloodline limit, understood its purpose. If he had touched the scroll and triggered this intricate trap he would have been killed; slowly, painfully and with no hope of reversal once it had begun. This was the most brutal technique he had ever seen, with the exception of Tsukuyomi.
He pulled the kunai that he had thrown earlier free of the table, and wove his own chakra over the blade, using a similar idea to that of the Hyuuga Juuken. Using the chakra infused blade, he carefully severed the primary flow of chakra over the scroll, and allowed his grin to reappear as the entire web dissipated. He reached for the scroll and unrolled it.
Once again his grin disappeared and this time his mouth twisted into an expression of sheer rage as he read the scroll.
"Good morning Sasuke-kun,
I hope you slept well in your new room. You are no doubt curious as to how this scroll appeared in your room when you had such sophisticated and admirable traps set upon the doorway. Well I will tell you the truth Sasuke-kun: the scroll didn't find a way into your room during the night. You are now in a different room, and this scroll was placed here at the same time you were. Your traps posed no significant problem to bypass and thanks to Kabuto's wonderful skills, he kept you asleep as he moved you here.
This room is to be your first lesson from me. Throughout it you will find traps, hidden weapons, and concealed food and water. You must survive in that room for three days. I do not want you to die, but if you are so weak and foolish that you cannot pass this challenge you are of no use to me. My advice would be to keep your Sharingan activated perpetually during that period to help ensure your wellbeing. I realize the significant drain this will put upon your chakra, but if it becomes necessary, you can always activate my wonderful gift to you, the curse seal on your shoulder. I will see you again in three days.
Best of luck
Orochimaru
The Greatest of the Sannin"
As soon as Sasuke's eyes passed the last word, the scroll was aflame. He dropped it quickly and carefully nursed his blistering hands. "What is going on here!" Sasuke yelled as he turned to survey the room with his Sharingan. His enhanced eyes saw hundreds, if not thousands of chakra webs throughout the room. Genjutsu predominated, although there was a great deal of very nasty skeins of chakra that Sasuke could see were designed to severely injure, if not kill, the target. Three days in this room? That is going to be very unpleasant. Oh well, I might as well start clearing some of this mess.
Sasuke carefully lifted his pouch off the table and inspected it for any traps, there appeared to be none. At least they had the respect to leave my possessions alone. He removed a small jar and opened it, carefully spreading the healing salve onto his burnt hands.
Once he had taken care of the open wounds, he picked up the kunai he had already woven with his chakra. Starting from his bed he began to clear out the traps and Genjutsu he saw.
Hours later, he had made some progress. The area around his bed and table were mostly clear; the remaining traps were created such that if they were dispelled another web across the room would be triggered. Sasuke sat on his bed, bleeding badly from cuts on his arms, chest and back, his eyes haunted with the memories of the images and feelings brought to him by the various Genjutsu that had gripped his mind.
He moved painfully to open the jar of medicated cream once again. He spread it sparingly on the cuts, watching as the bleeding stopped before his eyes. He then turned to the spoils of his effort. Sitting on his table were three small satchels of food and six good sized clay pots of water.
All nine items had been hidden under Genjutsus and had been heavily trapped. The gash that ran down his back, frighteningly close to his spine, had come from obtaining the third pack of food. Each bag of food held the same contents: two rolls of bread, some salted meat, and a small waxed block of cheese. Apparently, Orochimaru did want him to survive; with those packs alone he could keep up his strength for three days, although he would still be rather hungry. He also still had about half the room to clear, and the area remaining was much more densely covered in woven chakra.
Sasuke opened one of the food packs and calmly ate one of the rolls, and a few bites of the salted meat. It wasn't half bad, he decided, as he chewed the tough meat; he could feel his strength returning. His throat spasmed, constricting, tightening, cutting off his air. He choked as the last bite of meat was caught in his closing esophagus. How could I have been so stupid…of course the food was poisoned!
He frantically searched the safe part of the room for anything that could help him. There was nothing. He knew there was no way he could stop the poison, he needed to find a way to keep breathing until the effects wore off. His eyes flew to the torch on the wall. The bundle of reeds! The path to the torch wasn't clear, he was running out of air, he needed oxygen, needed to breathe. He grabbed a shuriken and some twine from his pouch. Quickly tying the cord through the shuriken he let it fly at the torch. With the shuriken embedded in the wooden stump of the torch Sasuke pulled on the twine, dragging the torch across the room. As soon as the torch was in reach he grabbed it and broke off the hollow end of a reed. He tipped his head back and tried to force the read into his closing throat. The end of the read pushed against the swollen blockage but couldn't force a path through. Sasuke could feel himself losing consciousness, could feel the room swimming. Knowing he had no choice now, Sasuke picked up a kunai.
He set the tip of the knife to his throat, just above his chest, and thrust in quickly. The pain was unbelievable, the nerves in his neck unused to even normal contact screamed as they felt the invasion of the steel blade. Sasuke forced himself to think, to follow through with what he had begun. He took up the reed once again and forced it into the open wound in his neck. The muscles around the wound grabbed at the read, sealing the tube into his trachea. Wonderfully cool air rushed through the hollow plant as his lungs instinctively fought for air. As Sasuke realized that he had done it, that now, with luck, he would survive, relief washed over him and he collapsed from exhaustion.
He woke on the floor of the chamber, listening to the rhythmic wheezing for a few seconds before realizing that it was air rushing into the reed protruding from his neck. He sat up slowly, his neck burning from the wound and his head throbbing from near suffocation. He looked around and realized that he could no longer see the traps. He thought that Orochimaru may have decided to let him out due to the injury, that he may be spared the remaining however long was left. He got to his feet and moved half a step toward the door before he felt his foot pass through a fine thread of chakra. A stone shot out of the wall toward his chest. He moved quickly trying to avoid the heavy projectile, but he stumbled, dizzy. The stone crashed into his left arm and he felt it break at the elbow and his shoulder…shifted, his arm separating from the joint. He spun to the floor screaming in pain.
It was only after he had finally mastered the pain in his arm that he realized that he had allowed his Sharingan to disappear, explaining why he could not see the traps. His eyes went red as he looked carefully around the room. The traps were still there, all of them. The effort of maintaining the Sharingan was too much, and he was overrun by a black wall of weariness.
Once again he woke on the floor of the chamber. He wasn't one to make the same mistake twice however; before he even moved he channeled chakra into his eyes and made sure that it was safe to stand. His arm screamed as he rose, his neck pounded, and his head throbbed with a nasty counterpoint.
He went to the table and emptied all of the food from the bags. He took each bag and carefully cut it into strips using his right arm as much as possible, but it was a two handed job. By the time he had fashioned a crude sling for his injured arm he was sweating and panting in pain. As he finished, he looked across the room at the remaining traps woven throughout the room; taunting him.
He knew there was no way he could clear those traps one by one, not in this condition. He thought about his options. He could leave them, and just wait out the remaining time; he knew that this made the most sense, but it was unacceptable to him. If I can't do this, how can I face Itachi? He thought of trying to clear them all at once, but couldn't see how to do it. Finally he came to the conclusion that he could do it by throwing kunai and shuriken woven with his chakra, but he needed a way to protect himself from the traps effects. Looking around the room his gaze fell onto the solid stone table.
He once again lifted the same kunai that he had been using from the start; it had been so reliable, so faithful. I will keep this knife, always. I will name it…Sakura. He smirked as he thought of how obnoxious the girl would be if she knew. She is such a nuisance, but she showed me such affection, such love, and even though I could never tell her this, it meant a lot to me.
Using Sakura, infused with chakra, he slowly chipped away a slab off the top of the table. It would be big enough to take cover behind, and thick enough to hold off most of the possible projectiles. He propped it in the corner of the room on top of the bed. He took his pouch and he slid behind the protective surface of the stone. Removing his spindle of twine, all of the kunai and shuriken, and a sealing scroll, he laid out the tools of his victory in front of him. He attached ten feet of twine to each kunai and carefully drew out seals of strength and protection onto the scroll. He took the scroll and wrapped it around his impromptu shelter, and then took up four kunai in his hand.
He released all four knives into the fray of chakra webbing, each one cocooned in his own chakra and aimed at specific targets. As each blade severed selected threads of charka, the once precisely laid nets collapsed into mindless tangles, releasing a multitude of weapons, gouts of flame, spires of ice and flickers of conflicting illusions. Sasuke withdrew behind the rock slab and listened to the mayhem. After a few minutes, the noise had died and he carefully looked into the room. Smoke and steam wafted through the air, chunks of rubble lay strewn across the floor, and the face of his shield was chipped, pitted, and porcupined with kunai, shuriken and kamas. Using his Sharingan he looked out at the remaining traps, and saw that only three or four were still intact. There was a horrible tangle of woven chakra remaining but most of it rendered useless; he could remove that mess at his leisure.
The few remaining were not all that impressive, but Sasuke knew he was in no condition to take risks. Choosing six shuriken, two for each target, he wrapped their tips in chakra and threw them across the room as he ducked back behind his table top. This time the resulting din lasted only a few seconds. Sasuke crawled out from beneath the rock and walked across the room, slashing at the remaining chakra with Sakura.
Satisfied he'd overcome the challenges, he made a final circuit around the room before restoring his table top to it's proper place, and lying down to sleep.