Chapter 3 – Sharingan
The remainder of the time Sasuke had spent in the chamber had been an exercise in hunger and extreme boredom. He had spent his time channeling the pain from his wounds, and imagining inflicting similar pains upon Itachi. He had not dared to try anymore of the food, even if he could have swallowed with a hollow reed embedded in his throat.
Kabuto had come to release him from the room after, what Sasuke assumed to be, three days. The medical ninja had taken him to a crude infirmary and demonstrated his skills. The wounds on Sasuke's arms, back and chest had vanished in minutes. The swelling in his throat had subsided while he had been in the chamber, but he had known better than to try to remove the reed from his neck. Kabuto carefully slipped it free of the self-inflicted wound and quickly applied his restorative chakra to the newly bleeding hole. Even so, Sasuke had several moments of instinctive panic as he felt air passing through the wound bringing traces of blood into his lungs. Kabuto's chakra repaired the hole, barely leaving a patch of tender skin. The broken elbow and separated shoulder proved to be more difficult to mend.
Kabuto had done as much as he could, but Sasuke's arm was still very stiff, and bound across his chest in a sling. Now, Kabuto was leading him through the maze of corridors that made up Orochimaru's latest hidden headquarters. They came to a large cavern, the walls and ceiling untouched stone, but the floor had been smoothed flat. Orochimaru stood in the center of the massive room, waiting with apparent patience as Kabuto and Sasuke approached.
"Congratulations, Sasuke-kun. You've survived the first step of your training; not that I expected any less from one such as yourself. Now we can begin in earnest, my new protégé." Orochimaru grinned wickedly at Sasuke, his eyes hiding secrets.
Sasuke walked up to face Orochimaru. He stopped about fifteen feet away, and met the eyes of the legendary ninja. "If we are to begin, may we begin now?" Sasuke asked, his voice dripping with contempt. Orochimaru began to laugh, his raspy chuckle changing to a deep-throated laugh as time passed.
"Sasuke-kun, you still don't understand your place, but for now, we won't worry about that. Today we will begin to cover the basics. We will begin with techniques that you already have the necessary stamina and control to perform. If we confine ourselves to techniques in this category, you should be able to learn them with a great deal of speed thanks to the Sharingan." Orochimaru's gaze took on a strange quality as he looked at Sasuke's eyes. It felt odd to have someone looking at his eyes, rather than into his eyes. To know that Orochimaru had no interest in the mind behind the eyes, but only the eyes themselves, was a very unsettling feeling. "Now, why don't you activate those eyes of yours and I'll show you some techniques."
Sasuke obeyed, pleased that he would finally be learning. His eyes transformed, the triple-dot Sharingan spinning into being as the normal black was invaded by red. He saw shadows of Orochimaru's arms and hands moving up to form seals, followed a moment later by the arms themselves. Sasuke watched as chakra was molded through the seals and Orochimaru began to perform technique after technique.
Sasuke mimicked his sensei, executing each technique mere seconds after the more experienced shinobi. Some of the techniques Sasuke had known for years, others he had never seen before. It didn't matter. Each technique snapped to completion as the seals were finished. Earth, water, fire, and ice element techniques were followed by various forms of replication and replacement, which in turn were followed by offensive jutsus, techniques which used the molded chakra itself as a weapon. Every technique was instantly committed to Sasuke's memory, each already being oriented with the others. Sasuke's mind was already combining these new techniques to form tactics and new jutsus.
Suddenly Orochimaru's hands formed a series of seals that Sasuke could tell would require more chakra than he could control after performing so many techniques. Not wanting stop, he called upon the power of the seal on his shoulder. The seal glowed, spreading the pattern across his chest and face. Chakra surged in his body, flowing into the each seal he formed, molding into a final shape. As the seals completed, the web of chakra tightened on itself and moved away from his body.
The dimly glowing web flew forward, narrowly missing Orochimaru and then impacting on a bulging rock protruding from the wall. The chakra spread over the rock, forming a glowing net. Sasuke could see from the chakra in the net that if it had fallen upon another shinobi, it would be draining the person of their chakra at an astonishing rate…and Sasuke stared, stunned, as he realized it would pass the stolen chakra back to himself.
Orochimaru had stopped forming seals and was grinning at the expression on Sasuke's face. "You are beginning to see," he said, "you see what I can teach one such as you. You knew your limits, and without a second thought, you took action to surpass them. You can go far, if you wish it; you can surpass Uchiha Itachi, if you wish it." Sasuke turned from the glowing net to look at Orochimaru. "Yes, Sasuke-kun, I know of your goals, your desire for revenge."
"Then you know I will go to any lengths to attain it. You know that I know that you're using me, but that I don't care. I just want to kill – my – brother." Sasuke said, a murderous malice permeating his voice.
"I do know that. That and more. Now, let us continue." His hands came up once again and began forming seal after seal.
They had continued for another hour, until Sasuke was completely exhausted and Orochimaru was sagging where he stood. Sasuke had gone back to his room to find a meal waiting on his table, untainted this time, and a pillow and thin blanket waiting on his bed. After wolfing down the food, he had collapsed on the bed and sunk into unconsciousness as soon as his head was on the pillow.
He had slept deeply, and only woken when Kabuto knocked and entered the room.
"Sasuke-kun, it's time for you to wake up now. There's much more for you to learn." Kabuto said nothing more as he left, clearly meaning for Sasuke to follow.
Sasuke rose and walked out of his room. After moving along behind Kabuto for a time, they once again came to the large cavern. As soon as they had reached the center of the room, Kabuto turned and a pair of kunai streaked towards Sasuke.
He dove aside, rolling to his feet and throwing two knives of his own. His knives passed right through the space where Kabuto had been, but now Kabuto was nowhere to be seen. Sasuke rose to a more mobile position, shed the sling on his arm, and activated his Sharingan. He didn't know why Kabuto was suddenly trying to kill him, but he didn't intend to let the foolish man succeed.
With his improved vision, he spotted the threads of chakra that were concealing Kabuto from normal sight. He pushed chakra through his feet to add speed to his lunge for the hidden ninja. Sakura jumped into his hand as he flew through the air. He buried the kunai deep into the web of chakra, hoping to wound Kabuto badly enough to force him to show himself. The chakra flowed around the blade and rebounded back onto Sasuke, pinning him to the floor.
Kabuto shimmered into being behind where Sasuke lay, chuckling at the struggling figure. "I thought that those lovely eyes of yours would have prevented you from falling into such an obvious trap, Sasuke-kun." A hand grabbed Kabuto's wrist and a blade was suddenly against his throat.
"You thought correctly, Kabuto. I saw through your trap and left you a decoy." The trapped Sasuke became a block of stone in a burst of smoke. "And now, because of your arrogance, your life is in my hands." Sasuke grinned wickedly and his hand tightened on Sakura.
"Sasuke-kun, please release Kabuto. I agree that he underestimated you, but having him die would be a great inconvenience. I asked him to bring you here and to have you practice your taijutsu and tactics. The fact that he took you so lightly disappoints me, but he seldom makes the same mistake twice. So with that in mind, release him and face each other again." He moved closer and put his face mere inches from Kabuto's. "And I would advise you to take Sasuke-kun very seriously, Kabuto, as he seems to be harboring a desire to see you dead." Sasuke released Kabuto and they turned to each other. This time, Sasuke took the initiative and disappeared from sight as he began his offensive.