Let's start this from the beginning

Swordsmen of the Mist

IX

Itachi slowly emerged from the ground at the foot of a rocky slope, first only with his head and then ultimately with the rest of his body as well.

An unfortunate side-effect of him blowing up the corridor was that he had been forced to use the Hiding in Surface Technique to escape it unharmed himself. However, considering his revelation about Orochimaru, that was an acceptable consequence. The situation had changed and so had his approach; instead of prioritising the search for Zabuza, he now had every intention of returning to Kakashi first. After all, Itachi had no idea where exactly the swordsman was while his other teammate's location should be rather easy to find.

He didn't want to abandon one teammate for another, but he was also realistic enough to understand that there were times where one had no other choice but to prioritize one above another.

Furthermore, Kakashi's summons probably had a better chance of finding the man anyway.

Itachi was just about to turn around and run in the direction he suspected Kakashi to be when an explosion not too far from him blew up the ground and threw dirt and dust into the air, creating a great cloud that limited his view on the area.

Naturally, Itachi immediately jumped onto a nearby branch high above the ground to put some more distance between himself and what he figured was his clearly not-so-dead opponent. This assumption was confirmed a moment later when a shrill howl filled the air, the unnatural sound making his hair stand on end.

Itachi pursed his lips when the dust cloud began to fade away and revealed the deformed figure of what once used to be a young woman.

He wasn't one to curse, but that didn't stop him from feeling rather frustrated by the sight of her almost unharmed body. Yes, there were a few cuts and burns on what remained of her human skin, but most of her body seemed completely fine. In fact, some parts of her dark, leathery skin actually appeared to be even thicker and healthier -if that word could even be used to describe such an abnormal perversion of nature- than before, making him suspect that she also possessed some sort of regenerative ability.

If all these explosions and the rocks from the collapsing corridor didn't bother her, none of his standard techniques would either, and considering there were at least two S-Rank enemies left unaccounted for, he didn't want to waste his chakra and use one of his more powerful techniques against this opponent…

Maybe the best thing to do would be to flee before she notices me.

That idea unfortunately flew out of the window as soon as it crossed his mind as it was at that exact moment his body moved on its own and jumped high into the air to avoid the fist that would have smashed his head into a gory mess.

A second later, his opponent jumped after him, a wild and inhuman look in her eyes.

Itachi had realized earlier that outright blocking her attacks would be detrimental in the long run due to her immense strength, and as dodging wasn't easy not that they were both in the air, all he could do in this situation was to redirect her limbs away from himself.

She caught up with him fast and immediately swept at his face in a wide sideways arc with her claws, making Itachi lean back while also carefully slam his fist against her wrist to make the attack go wide. What followed was another swing with her other hand which he neutralised in the same way, followed by a third that came at Itachi from above and which he let fly by harmlessly with a simple twist of his body.

Maybe it was just a coincidence, or maybe a part of her realized that these kinds of attacks wouldn't work, but her next attack was a well-aimed punch at his chest that might actually have connected if Itachi hadn't had the Sharingan to predict her movements. Consequently, rather than blowing a hole into his chest, Itachi twisted his body once more and grabbed onto the limp to pull himself closer to his surprised opponent before kicking off her body to not only break them up again but also propel her to the ground.

That strategy seemed to work just fine at first, but before he had time to use this short window to think of a new plan, everything went wrong again.

Just like when chakra had steamed out of her arms earlier to increase the speed and power of her punch, the same happened now, the only difference being that it didn't emerge from any of her limbs but the two bulges on her back he hadn't paid much attention to until now.

As a result of that, instead of continuing to fall to the ground, she suddenly shot up again, flying straight at him.

Itachi managed just so to avoid her clumsy strike but couldn't do anything to stop the collision.

The impact of it knocked the air out of his lungs and disoriented him for a little more than a heartbeat, but at least the latter was the case for his opponent as well considering there wasn't any follow-up attack from her that he needed to worry about.

Their bodies were tangled together for only two or three seconds before departing from each other again, giving Itachi more than enough time to collect himself and adjust his body in a way that allowed him to land softly on his feet while his opponent crashed much less gracefully into the ground, stirring up another cloud of dust in the process.

Using that opportunity, he quickly created a Crow Clone to fight in his stead while he hid in the background to give himself some time to think.

He had just positioned himself behind a thick tree when his opponent jumped out of the dust cloud again, no worse to wear by the crash that would have broken several bones in a normal human body.

Not that Itachi was surprised, mind you.

From his position behind the tree, Itachi observed the resulting fight between his opponent and his clone while he thought about what he should do. On one hand, this was the perfect opportunity for him to escape and find Kakashi. As long as his clone continued to fight -which would be quite a while considering it could reform even if it got destroyed until it ran out of chakra- and distract the poor victim of one of Orochimaru's experiments, Itachi would be able to get away without being noticed quite easily.

On the other hand, leaving a possible enemy behind didn't sit well with him. He had enough experience to know that such things came back to bite you, and having to deal with her on top of Orochimaru if they truly encountered the Sannin would be a serious problem. Even more so when there were still the two rogue swordsmen to consider.

Yes, it would be for the best if he took care of this right now instead of letting it become a problem later on.

As strong as she might be, in the end, she was still little more than a beast. With her mind so obviously broken as it was, all her apparent power was pretty much wasted on her. After all, if you couldn't use your abilities smartly, you could just as well not have them to begin with.

That being said, her durability might be a problem. Itachi really didn't want to waste much chakra on this, so he needed to find a way to kill her as efficiently as possible.

The best approach would probably be to finish her off with one single, lethal attack, he thought. Judging from the way she doesn't bother much with guarding her vital spots or defence in general, piercing her heart or even decapitating her shouldn't be impossible. However, that was only true if he could actually go through her skin; he hadn't forgotten how his kunai had failed to pierce her skin earlier.

Coating his weapons with chakra could do the trick, and he thought it might be even more efficient to specifically enhance them with either wind or lightning chakra as well. Neither element was his speciality, but he could manipulate them enough to get by. Although if my attack fails and she survives, it would ultimately have been useless and a waste of both my time and chakra. She had proven to possess regenerative abilities, after all. She would most likely shrug off every non-lethal attack without a second thought, and if that happened, he would be directly in front of her. As much as he was confident that he could get away from her again without getting injured, the odds of something going wrong wasn't zero and he saw no reason to risk that.

He could use long-range techniques, of course, but that brought him back to his problem of using more chakra than absolutely necessary. Just two or three wouldn't even be a problem, but the likelihood of that being enough was slim.

Then, suddenly, Itachi's eyes widened when he got an idea. It was a little bit risky but not more so than his plan of coating weapons in chakra, and the kind of attack he had in mind would also conveniently bypass his opponent's ridiculous high defence. He had never actually attempted to use it outside of the classroom and even then not in a combat situation, but he knew that he could pull it off.

As much as he disliked people gushing about his supposed status as a genius, he was in fact a prodigy. Mastering new techniques always came easy to him, even without the help of his Sharingan.

Also, if things went perfectly, he might even be able to capture her instead of being forced to kill her. While he certainly couldn't make that a priority considering the situation, it would be rather beneficial if he could pull that off. It wasn't worth it to take unnecessary risks, of course, but if the opportunity presented itself, he would take it.

It took him little more than a minute for an opportunity to present itself. His clone got hit in the chest and immediately dissolved into a murder of crows that swarmed around its opponent, giving Itachi the opening he needed to close in on them without being noticed until it was already too late.

He was in front of the grotesque figure in the blink of an eye and dodged its reflexive swept with ease before spinning around his own axis and throwing a kick up against his opponent's chin.

Although it felt like kicking a wall and sent vibrations through his body that made him clench his teeth, the attack did its job in that it lifted her off the ground and thus limited her mobility.

It was then that he could execute the rest of his plan:

While still in mid-air, his opponent gave a frustrated growl as she threw out her leg to kick him away. Having hoped for just that reaction, Itachi focused his chakra into his hands and compacted it as much as he could before forming it into small, sharp blades just like he had learned in Tsunade's lessons.

Her left leg flew mere millimetres over his head as he ducked beneath it, close enough for him to feel a breeze of air whirling through his hair, and he used that opportunity to gently tap her upper leg before quickly falling back again to get some distance between them.

When she landed on the ground a few moments later, she let out something that sounded like a surprised squeak when the leg Itachi had just tapped immediately gave away beneath her.

His clone immediately realized what he had done and rushed towards her with chakra coated hands as well. Seeing that, their opponent howled again and lashed out with her right arm. His clone didn't care about that, however, and didn't even bother trying to dodge the attack.

It managed to tap her arm less than a heartbeat before the claws tore it apart, dissolving it once more into a murder of crows.

Itachi took a moment to watch them fly away and note that his chakra must have run out as the clone didn't reform again, but it didn't really matter. With two limbs down, his opponent's movements became even easier to predict and consequently easier to dodge.

Even more so because he couldn't now identify the build-up of chakra in the bulges on her back for what it was instead of being caught by surprise as he had been previously.

Chakra once again steamed out from her back and propelled her forwards, right towards Itachi's waiting form. She first roared in triumph, but that sound quickly turned into confusion when his body was replaced by a wooden log in a puff of white smoke. Then, with nothing sturdy enough to stop her momentum in her path, she continued to fly forwards in a parallel line to the rocky slope to their right, leaving a trail of destruction and uprooted trees in her wake before finally coming to a halt.

Itachi was on top of her half a second later and used his chakra scalpels to immobilize her remaining two limbs as well. Then, just to be safe, he did the same to destroy all the nerves, muscles, and chakra pathways that led to the bulges on her back just as he had done with her limbs as well.

After all, there was no need to risk her using that method again to possibly catch him off-guard.

The end of the fight felt almost anticlimactic. That was obviously a stupid thought, however; fights rarely had a big and dramatic climax. In fact, most fights didn't last any longer than this one had, only ever scratching the five minutes mark when either both opponents were very close in skill and experience or when one was stronger than their opponent and deliberately stalled the fight.

Still, even as he observed the lying figure in front of him, he couldn't quite shake the feeling that something was off.

However, because he couldn't pinpoint anything specific that would explain this sensation, Itachi decided to keep that in mind but for now focus on what was in front of him. His instincts were rarely wrong, so whatever was subconsciously bothering him would make itself known sooner rather than later anyway.

Thus, rather than worrying about things he couldn't change, he instead observed in wonder as his fallen opponent's vile chakra slowly but surely began to repair the damage he had inflicted on her.

He had cut through her pathways and injected his own chakra into it to disturb her internal system, but even that turned out to be not enough to keep her down for long. In fact, if he were to take a guess, he would say that it would take only about ten to fifteen minutes for her to be back on her feet. No wonder my earlier attacks didn't work on her, he thought. If she can heal internal wounds like that this fast even after I utilized my chakra scalpels, external wounds naturally don't pose much of a threat. It would take a truly devastating technique to overcome such a powerful healing ability.

A cold shudder ran down his back when he remembered that Orochimaru also possessed almost unbelievable regenerative abilities. While it didn't come as much of a surprise that they were at least partially the result of experiments instead of merely an advantage gained from a forbidden technique, this was the first time he had confirmation of that. Just thinking about how many innocents must have landed on his operation table, how many must have died slow and painful deaths to reach this point, made him sick.

It also made him wonder which other abilities the Sannin gained this way he didn't know about, or how the fact that he had left Konoha earlier in this timeline had affected things.

Itachi forcefully discarded these grim thoughts. There was nothing he could do about any of that right now and he needed to find Kakashi as soon as possible so that they could go after Zabuza together. There was no time to waste with useless thoughts.

Unfortunately, due to her healing abilities, it was impossible to take his opponent prisoner. Things might be different if there were no other enemies left to worry about, but alas, that was not the case.

Hopefully examining her corpse would be enough to find out why her Cure Mark abilities were so much stronger than those he had observed in Sasuke.

He felt sorry for that young woman, the victim of crimes that went against nature itself, but it couldn't be helped. This was hardly the first time he killed someone that didn't deserve their fate and it was unlikely to be the last time either, but at least it could be considered mercy in this case. After what she had gone through, death would surely be a welcome reprise.

Itachi could confidentially say that there was no pain or suffering in the afterlife, after all.

Decision made, he once again channelled chakra into his hands, intend of giving her a quick and painless death.

He felt the ominous presence a moment before its owner made itself known.

"Kukuku, would you look at that? It appears even my creations are no match for the great Uchiha Clan!"

There, standing on top of the rocky slope and looking down on him with a nasty grin on his face, was Orochimaru.

Kakashi was just about to gather his strength and stand up after finally having his wounds patched up enough to at least avoid bleeding out on the spot when a distant rumbling caught his attention. At first, he thought it might be the result of a nearby fight, but he quickly realized that not only did it come from the wrong direction but also was a constant sound that got louder and louder while closing in on his approximate position.

Then he noticed the column of smoke rising up in the distance and vanishing into the horizon beyond what he could see, confirming that it was indeed someone -or something- approaching instead of the result of some technique.

Is it too much to ask that this is backup? Itachi had sent a crow back to Konoha when their promised support from Kiri hadn't arrived at the agreed meeting place, after all.

Unfortunately, considering their distance from their home, it was highly unlikely that any possible backup would already be here. Sure, some random patrol that was close enough to the border to react quickly might have gotten the message first and came to help them, but what were the odds of that? Kakashi was rarely so lucky.

That also wouldn't explain why their arrival was accompanied by such a ruckus.

This is better not another enemy, he thought with a sigh even while he prepared for the worst. We have enough on our hands as it is. The last thing we need is another opponent.

Itachi had hoped to reunite with at least Kakashi if not his entire team before possibly encountering the rogue Sannin, but it appeared that wasn't to be. Facing him alone like this was truly the worst-case scenario, but now that it had happened, Itachi had no other choice but to deal with it.

However, it wasn't only Orochimaru that caught his eyes but also the motionless figure at his feet.

"Oh?" Orochimaru said, his grin impossibly growing even wider. "Are you wondering about that ugly thing? It's nothing worth mentioning, really. Just something that got in my way that I got rid of." With that, he gave the body a hard kick that made it thunder down the slope.

A few seconds later, Kushimaru's lifeless body came crashing to the ground just a dozen metres away from him, and a quick glance with his Sharingan confirmed that it was indeed the real deal and not just a convincing fake body. After all, there was no way to fake the fading chakra signature his eyes could clearly make out.

Or at least there shouldn't be a way, he conceded in the privacy of his mind. Who knew what kinds of tricks he had come up with over the years?

Itachi still didn't think it was a fake, but it was better to be safe than to be sorry.

"Orochimaru," he finally greeted the man with a calm demeanour while his head came up with and decarded idea after idea about how to deal with this situation. "Can I assume you didn't come to turn yourself in?"

The Sannin chuckled. "Oh my, who would have thought a member of such a prestigious, stuck-up clan as yours would make a joke in such a situation? Maybe I need to revise my opinion of your lot after all."

"If it's not that, then is it merely to insult my family?"

"As amusing as that might be, I'm afraid that isn't the reason either." Orochimaru slowly licked his lips. "No, rather, I long since thought about which ability I would like to acquire next, and the Sharingan is always on top of the list." He then threw his arms out in a dramatic fashion that made Itachi momentarily focus on the familiar ring on his left pinkie before continuing in a noticeably excited tone. "How could I possibly resist when none other than the famed Itachi Uchiha went through all this trouble just to come to me all by himself?"

He wasn't surprised by that admission at all. While he had expected the man to try luring him to his side first, there had been no doubt in his mind about his true intentions. It was a shame, though, as playing along with such a scheme would have given him a better shot at taking him out.

Not that this turn of events was surprising either, mind you. Orochimaru had always been an arrogant individual, regularly to the point where it came to bite him later on, and he probably thought that prodigy or not, he could take Itachi by force without too much trouble.

Itachi was confident that he could take him, however. Even more so because they hadn't fought in this timeline yet.

In his last life, Orochimaru had once tried to take his body by force as well, and just like now, he had been rather overconfident in that confrontation. Once he thought himself in a superior situation, he let his guard down and allowed Itachi to not only free himself but paralyse the man with a Genjutsu of his in turn.

He was confident that he could have beaten the Sannin in a straight fight as well, but it wouldn't have been easy nor even a guaranteed victory at all. Without taking him by surprise as he had done, he would have been forced to use some of his most dangerous techniques, and with the man's tendency to somehow always escape when things get tough, there was still the possibility that he would have gotten away before Itachi would have had the chance to finish him off for good.

What he was getting at was that after that first confrontation, every future fight against this opponent would have been much harder.

This was an entirely new timeline, though. Here, the two of them never crossed blades with each other, meaning Orochimaru wasn't as cautious of him yet as he was in Itachi's previous life. This, in turn, meant he could still be taken by surprise.

Although no matter how confident he might be, Orochimaru was unfortunately still clever enough to avoid looking directly into his eyes. Doing so wouldn't be just arrogant but positively stupid, after all. Still, Itachi wouldn't let that stop him. In fact, Orochimaru probably believed that every Genjutsu not cast directly through his Sharingan would be useless and thus didn't expect any such technique to be of any danger to him.

Itachi could use that against him. After all, whatever illusion he used only needed to paralyse him for about a second, if even that. As long as that happened, he could finish this with one attack.

He didn't plan to give his opponent the chance to recover and either fight back or flee.

"Well then," Orochimaru continued. "Why don't we-"

Itachi didn't wait for him to finish before casting his strongest Genjutsu that didn't require eye contact on the man without as much as a single hand seal, making the Sannin freeze on the spot.

A moment later, he appeared in the air next to him, his eyes spinning and transforming into the Mangekyo Sharingan.

Orochimaru might have amazing regenerative abilities that allowed him to come back from almost any injury, but even he would be finished if pierced by the Totsuka Blade and pulled into its eternal realm of drunken stupor.

However, before he had the chance to even form his Susanoo, a figure that had previously been out of sight and hidden beneath Orochimaru's chakra that blanketed the area jumped towards him with a kick to his chest.

Itachi managed to raise his arms in time to block the attack. The power behind it wasn't particularly strong -he didn't feel any pain in his arms even though they were still battered from his previous fight- or overwhelming, but because he was still in mid-air, there was nothing he could do to stop himself from being thrown back towards where he came from.

He felt the backlash of his Genjutsu being broken even before his feet touched the ground.

This is bad, he thought. With that attack having failed, any fight that broke out from here would undoubtedly be a hard one, especially if the newcomer proved himself to be even just a somewhat decent opponent as well. I can't have him intervene whenever I'm about to beat Orochimaru, so taking him out first will take priority.

"That was quite rude, wasn't it?" the Sannin said, his surprise at being caught off-guard like that already forgotten. "Hasn't anyone told you not to attack someone in the middle of a conversation? Things would have turned ugly if not for Nakamura's timely interference."

The brown-haired young man bowed in acknowledgement before turning his gaze back towards Itachi, his eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses.

While he had never met that person before, he recognized that name from Anko's and Yukio's stories easily enough. So that's their teammate that went with Orochimaru, then.

"Now that I think about it," Orochimaru continued with a contemplative expression on his face. "You took his place on my former team, did you not? In a way, that makes all three of us part of the same lineage, doesn't it? How unfortunate that the other two aren't with you. Now that would have been an interesting reunion!"

"I'm sure they wouldn't be quite as happy about it as you."

The other man shrugged. "It's only my opinion that matters, so why should I care about what they think?"

"It's exactly that mentality that will ultimately result in your defeat."

Orochimaru only laughed. "Is that so? Well, I guess we will see about that soon enough." While he still made sure to avoid his gaze, Itachi could see the glee in his yellow eyes clear as day. "You know, when I made this little arrangement with these two swordsmen about offering them shelter in this hideout in return for them bringing me new subject to experiment on, I never dreamed that one of them would be the bearer of a Mangekyo Sharingan! I'd love to know how you awakened it when the last thing I heard was that Shisui Uchiha was its sole user...?"

When Itachi stayed silent, Orochimaru simply shrugged again, apparently having expected that reaction. "No matter. You will tell me all your secrets soon enough anyway."

Itachi didn't plan to let it come to that. He might have preferred to fight the Sannin under different circumstances and having two opponents was far from ideal as well, but in the end, he was still confident that he could do it.

Especially because he was more than just a little motivated to do so. After all, Orochimaru had taken an interest in his brother before and there was no way to be sure he wouldn't do so again. If the Sannin died here and now, however, that danger would be taken care of before it could become an actual problem.

"In my experience, those that talk big usually fall on their faces shortly after."

Orochimaru chuckled, not intimidated in the slightest. "Aren't you doing the exact same thing just now, Itachi-kun?"

"Possibly, but I'm not the one that already needed to be rescued once because they got caught off-guard."

While he would never admit it out loud, Itachi felt a surge of satisfaction when he saw the arrogant smirk on Orochimaru's face momentarily turn into an annoyed scowl before he caught himself and forced his face back into a confident expression.

Neither of them said another word, but there was a noticeable shift in the air around them as both prepared for a fight; the weight of each other's full attention set upon their shoulders, killing intend filled the area, and leaves rustled while cracks appeared in nearby stones under the pressure of their combined chakra.

Muscles tense, Itachi was just about to jump into action when a loud rumbling reached his ears. Then, before he could attempt to identify its source, a gigantic blue snake broke through the trees a dozen metres to his right.

However, as much as that sight shocked him, it wasn't as much the snake that caught his attention but the person riding on its head. She had grown over the years, of course, and the dark violet dress that reached down her legs and the red sash around her waist were new to him as well, but he would recognize that person everywhere.

"Well," Anko said, her playful tone belying the hard look in her eyes. "Seems like I got here just in time for a dramatic entrance, didn't I?"

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