Orochimaru danced through the battlefield, dodging and parrying blow after blow. Each move was easy, graceful, but his thoughts were also divided.

These opponents were amusing, though he'd forgotten to ask for introductions. He supposed it was too late for that now. Still, the two outlanders had been obligingly communicative with each other. If what he was hearing was correct, then besides the obvious 'Naruto,' the swordsman was named 'Mossball' and the leg-fighter was named 'Dumbass'. This would also make the third outlander who had not yet joined the fight 'Luffy'. Well, they were outlanders, so he supposed it might be possible.

Dumbass and Mossball wove in and out of combat, neither one willing to attack at the same time, but both very comfortable with taking turns. That appeared to be the limit to their teamwork. Honestly, they were a bit too predictable. Orochimaru's blade, the Kusanagi-no-tsurugi, licked out and trimmed the end of Dumbass' lit cigarette. With a curse, the man spat it out and returned seconds later. Hopefully he would pay a bit more attention next time.

All things considered, it was a wonderful time for progressing his knowledge. Being a member of Akatsuki had always been stifling, only worth it for the security it had afforded him, and in recent months he had seriously considered leaving the group behind entirely. When their new objective had been revealed, Orochimaru had laughed at their mysterious leader in derision. Tobi's power might be unquestionable, but the man's plans seemed positively ludicrous even by Orochimaru's warped standards of ambition.

Naruto clapped both hands together in a familiar gesture, and Orochimaru melted into the ground, becoming one with the cobblestones of the harbor. Moments later, a tremendously stout toad in stone armor smashed into the ground where he had been standing. Jiraiya's pupil was foolish indeed to think he could catch him with a technique he had seen used dozens of times before. The toad disappeared a moment later in a cloud of smoke.

That was before last week, when he had finally gotten his hands on someone from the outside world, who was one of the most interesting test subjects that he had ever seen. A woman who could possess the properties of glass. She could harden, change her shape, turn nearly invisible, or even use refraction to create deadly beams of light when exposed to the sun. The path of her chakra was truly extraordinary. The clincher, though, was that it had all happened because she had eaten a single fruit.

Just a fruit.

Orochimaru flowed out of the stones, slashing in a fluid motion. Naruto's shadow clone disappeared in a puff of smoke. Pity. He'd thought that had been the real one.

Though the woman hadn't survived the testing processes, his investigations being somewhat more vigorous than usual, he had learned oh so much. But now he had even more questions. Apparently they lost the ability to swim? Why should that be? Surely designing these powers so that they all resulted in the ability to sink in seawater would be more, not less, difficult? It was frustrating. Finding more test subjects, and especially one of those Devil Fruits, was now his second-most important priority, and for that they needed to find their way to the outside world. To accomplish that, he would stay with Akatsuki.

His most important priority was a secret to all but Danzou.

Without a pause, Dumbass launched a kick of meteoritic speed. Orochimaru dodged to the side before letting loose more snakes to distract the boy. Honestly, these two strangely-named outlanders were frighteningly powerful given their obvious lack of proper training.

It was well known to those who paid attention (though so few really did) that the Elemental Kingdoms consisted of just a couple of large islands in the middle of an immense ocean. Fewer still knew about the weather patterns and magnetic disturbances that made travel to the outside world a deadly prospect. Finally, almost no one knew about the extremely unusual permanent genjutsu that made travel and navigation to the outside world literally impossible, even for those who could command storms and seas alike. Once one left the coast, you could no longer trust your eyes when it came to the sun or stars. Navigation was simply impossible.

Mossball was panting and bleeding from numerous slashes and bites, but he had been very impressive, actually landing a couple small strikes even as he fought alone. His skill was incredible, though the young man seemed completely unused to dealing with even the most basic of tricks. He would never have a chance at winning until he could learn to track the location of Orochimaru's true body at all times.

In the space of just three weeks, the ever-bubbly Tobi had solved all of these problems. Who would have guessed that the magnetism and weather effects that shrouded their islands were being generated by an ancient jutsu just waiting to be switched off by someone with the right advanced bloodline?

How had Tobi guessed that? The entire affair was infuriatingly unlikely. The man was holding something back. He knew things he shouldn't about the outside world. It had turned out that navigators outside their island just so happened to possess devices that let them move freely from island to island, sailing along 'roads' of magnetic fields, and those roads were something that the Elemental Kingdoms had lacked until last week.

The missing fighter, Luffy, was now charging into combat, screaming with quite a lot less subtlety than was elegant. Orochimaru turned to regard him for a moment. Actually, this was becoming a bit dangerous. Swordplay had never really been his specialty. Orochimaru could escape and continue the fight at range at any time of course, but if this 'Luffy' was as strong as Mossball and Dumbass were then he would either have to kill them or leave.

All they needed now was a ship and navigation device to use to reach the outside world. He didn't trust any of their number to guess their way through building a ship that could survive the external seas, so they needed a ship that had been proven to work. Luckily, ships were coming to them like mice entering a serpent's nest.

He flung out one arm and threw half a dozen of his most venomous serpents at Luffy, promptly binding him around his limbs and torso. The new arrival fell to the ground. With Luffy taken care of, he turned to focus on the other combatants.

Honestly, the tiny ship he had just stolen was probably not large enough to fit such a... touchy group as Akatsuki, but finding two small ships might work out even better than a single larger one. It was just that the owners of these ships seemed so protective of them.

Orochimaru's palm slammed into the ground and a burst of chakra sent spires of earth as sharp as spears shooting up from the ground around him. The other combatants dodged desperately, managing to avoid all but superficial wounds. So impressive!

It was for this reason that he was so excited right now. He had always taken an intensely personal interest in the development of young warriors and now he was being violently assailed by no less than four promising ones. Three outlanders and a Konoha shinobi of special note.

Suddenly, Orochimaru was struck by the distinct impression that he had made a mistake. Then, a fist impacted into his side. Ribs fracturing, breath violently pushed from his lungs, he was lifted into the air and sent flying, spinning like a rifled bullet across the docks before he crashed into the splintering remains of what had just recently been a warehouse.

How interesting!

After that hit, Orochimaru decided to stop dividing his attention. A mass of snakes disguised in his form rose jerkily to its feet from the wreckage, while his real body had already slipped off to the side, watching the young ones carefully.

Mossball and Dumbass relaxed somewhat, more than would be expected after seeing him stand up from a hit like that. They weren't worried any more. How unusual.

The strangest thing was the mysterious Luffy, who was now adjusting his straw-hat. Three oddities to note there. One, the punch had come from his direction, but he had been quite a bit too far away to have done it. Two, he had escaped from the snake bind nearly instantaneously. Three, Orochimaru had been sure that Luffy was incompetent given the previous showing, but the idea that an incompetent could land a hit on him, much less an overwhelming strike, was ludicrous.

After a moment, Orochimaru found a fourth oddity: alone among all of them, Luffy had barely glanced at his snake-clone before scanning the dust for, and finding, his real hidden form. Interesting.

Now useless, the clone dissolved and slithered off, returning to him as he stepped from the shadows.

"Hey you snake-bastard! What's the big deal attacking us?" Luffy shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Because it amused me," Orochimaru responded, off-hand. "Ah, I see it now. You're the leader, I suppose." Orochimaru looked the pirate leader over. Smaller and scrawnier than the other two, it was unusual to see them deferring to him.

Dumbass was the next to speak. "Luffy! Nami and Robin are in trouble, so what the hell are you doing here?! Let us handle this shitty snake-man, and you go after the Merry!"

Orochimaru was amused at the thought of it. This said to someone who couldn't even swim or run on the waves. "You're not going anywhere quickly, child. Those snakes were my venomous ones, and their poison is now flowing through your veins."

"Hah!" Luffy laughed, dripping with confidence, as well as a bit of blood. "Poison isn't going to work on me. I'm made of rubber!"

"Dammit, Luffy," growled Dumbass, "That's not how it works!" Then he paused, turning to Mossball. "Is it? That's not how it works, right?"

"Why are you asking me?"

Orochimaru wasn't quite sure what to make of all this. "Are you mocking me?"

"No way. I'm always serious." said Luffy, a hard expression on his face. To his side, Mossball grimaced, probably from his wounds. Dumbass, too, wore a pained look. Naruto, meanwhile, removed a small notebook and started hurriedly leafing through it.

"Luffy!" shouted Dumbass, "Get your ass on that ship and take out that guy who blasted you into the ocean or I swear I'll make you skip meat for a week straight!"

"Wha-?! He's the one that took the Merry?! Alright, yeah, I've got a bone to pick with that bastard!"

With that, Luffy turned in place and dashed to the water's edge. Was this Luffy the leader, or wasn't he? What in the world did he think he was doing? The ship and his sea-serpent, Rangyoku, were more than a kilometer out by now, and picking up speed as the water deepened.

Then Luffy stretched, and Orochimaru felt a shiver run down his spine. The young man's arm shot out over the ocean like a lance, covering the distance in almost no time at all, until it became clear he had just grasped onto something stable. Orochimaru was so mesmerized by the sight of it that he reacted too late to catch the fruit-user. With a hand-seal, he summoned a pair of grasping stone jaws from the ground beneath Luffy, but they emerged too slowly. Roaring his defiance, Luffy flew off into the distance.

Incredible!

He turned to his targets once again. "Well, I'd say it's time to end this, don't you? I'd like to follow after that young man before my partner kills them him."

Then, he furrowed his brow. Something in the air had changed.

Mossball had finished tying a scarf over his head and was emanating enough bloodlust for four trained killers. His three blades were at the ready.

Dumbass had lit another cigarette and was watching Orochimaru as if he were wondering how best to catch and cook him.

Naruto stuffed the notebook back in his pocket and clapped both hands together. He disappeared in a puff of smoke, and, a moment later, was standing beside the most grizzled-looking toad that Orochimaru had ever seen. It was grey and green, but only a fraction of its original coloring was visible. What skin wasn't covered in leather armor was marred by deep, warped scars from slashes and numerous puncture wounds that raised into hard, puckered ridges. Looking closer, he saw that the toad's armor wasn't just any leather; it was snake-leather. At the toad's side was an earthen clay jar.

Also interesting.

Orochimaru took a deep breath.

[NINPO: DOKUGIRI] - [POISON GAS]

From his mouth erupted a great billowing cloud of poisonous gas. Before anyone else could move, the grizzled toad leapt into the thick of it, throat expanding as it activated a wind-element jutsu, sucking in every bit of the cloud of poison into its vacuum of a maw. Once all the poison was removed, it spat the inhaled air into the jar beside it, sealing it with a massive cork.

Then, all the others advanced, closing the distance. Teamwork was a wonderful thing to witness in young ones.

He smiled. This was going to be fun, wasn't it?

Out at sea, Sasuke was hanging on to the side of the ship, readying to attack. Beside him, the serpent undulated its sinuous body, swimming further out to sea. Thankfully, the serpent's head was beneath the water, or it likely would have smelled him out, even over the scent of gunpowder from above deck. The problem was that Danzou was almost certainly far more skilled than he was. S-rank ninja were not to be trifled with. He needed to level the playing field, and he had the perfect method of attack.

The problem was landing it. The chaos, explosions, and lightning strikes up on deck told him that a fight was still ongoing, but he'd need a distraction he could rely on to make this work.

That was when the hand came rocketing into view directly above him. Someone from the shore had just reached out and grabbed on to the wooden railing on deck. Sasuke glanced toward shore and gulped. He hadn't seen body manipulation like that outside the Akimichi Clan. He smiled, and it was completely without mirth. Looks like he had his distraction.

It was two seconds before Danzou noticed the unexpected arm. A leap forward and a single swipe of his sword threatened amputation, but at the last instant the stretching man let go, his hand snapping back away from the ship. Unfortunately, Danzou hadn't come near enough to the edge. Sasuke had missed his chance.

Then the unexpected happened. A familiar-sounding woman from on deck shouted, "Luffy!" and a chain of arms, lithe and feminine, sprouted from the planks of the ship just several feet away from him. Musical tones chimed out as they blossomed, reaching out like lightning to tightly grasp the rubber-man's hand. A second later, Danzou noticed this as well.

He dashed to the side of the ship and looked over to see just what had happened. In that instant, Sasuke caught his eyes.

Gotcha.

The tomoe in Sasuke's eyes unfolded into the kaleidoscope pattern that had been his brother's unique signature.

[TSUKUYOMI]

Time slowed to a crawl.