Well, I've somehow written a new chapter! I really do love this story and it seems like I keep appologizing for my inconsistant uploads but I sincerely want to thank anyone and everyone that enjoys reading this story! Please enjoy this chapter and don't forget to review or comment! I still read all of them!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto!
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Within a large open room that spanned several dozen feet high, a battle between two individuals was taking place. Both ninja were blurrily racing across the room at a lightning fast speed, clashing their swords together and letting the sparks fly between the pressures of the blades. The battle between one of the last Uchiha and the Snake Sannin had begun.
While Orochimaru was naturally brilliant in the shinobi arts and knew many forbidden jutsu, he currently could not comprehend how powerful Sasuke had become in just three years. Orochimaru wondered just what exactly Sasuke had been doing since he left the leaf village. The snake sannin didn't have much time to think further as he dodged an incoming swing from Sasuke's blade and leapt onto the side of the wall, using chakra in his feet to stick to the surface.
Golden slitted eyes glared down at the young teen before them. Blazing red sharingan eyes had glared back. Sasuke knew that this would be a difficult fight for him, but at the same time, it was necessary. During his years with Madara he learned that only hatred and anger could make him stronger. The sharingan fed off these emotions and like a chain reaction, Sasuke could feel the power doubling within him. It also reinforced what Itachi had told him all those years ago, saying that he lacked hatred.
So what did Sasuke hate? At the start of his training his hartred was only based on the ambition to kill Itachi, but Madara opened his eyes to so much more. Sasuke learned to create hate from nearly anything and everything. When Sasuke realized his strength in hatred, he became addicted. It was exactly what he wanted. Right now, Sasuke was remembering his fight with Orochimaru all those years ago in the Forest of Death, and how Orochimaru toyed with the young Uchiha. His anger swelled as he recalled how weak he was and how strong the sannin was.
Red sharingan eyes spun in a rapid fury, reflecting Sasuke's negative emotions, and the young Uchiha launched himself after the Sannin. Orochimaru deflected Sasuke's sword and leapt back onto the ground while forming multiple hand signs. A horde of snakes erupted from the ground underneath and launched themselves at Sasuke, but the Uchiha kept moving forward. He turned his body and dodged the snakes that were targeting him. He ducked under one aimed at his head before slashing multiple snakes in his way, all while continuing to move forward.
Sasuke's red eyes moved around in a flurry, taking note of where everything in the room was, nothing would escape his eyes. Orochimaru's golden eyes widened as he realized that his current attack wasn't even slowing down the Uchiha. Pale white hands formed a new set of hand signs and prepared another jutsu, however Orochimaru was stunned as he felt two hands grab his shoulders.
Sasuke launched his knee into Orochimaru's stomach and watched the Sannin kneel over in stunned pain. However, as Sasuke slashed at the stunned Orochimaru with his sword, Orochimaru turned into a mud figure, revealing a simple clone.
Sasuke scanned the room for any signs of the Sannin, only to hear the sound of concrete cracking. Red eyes widened as the floor beneath Sasuke cracked and a metal sword shot upwards, slicing part of Sasuke's arm.
The young Uchiha jumped backwards as Orochimaru's head flew out of the hole, a sword extending from his mouth. Orochimaru let his pale neck lengthen and chased after Sasuke. While the Uchiha dodging the Sannin's sword, he felt his anger rise due to the throbbing pain in his arm. Everything Madara taught him, included using his anger, and with that, Sasuke felt himself concentrate and moved to attack, dodging Orochimaru's head and roughly grabbing the ninja's extended neck.
Orochimaru choked as his breath was restricted. He looked back with wide eyes seeing Sasuke holding his neck with his bloodied hand, and his other hand ready to slash downwards with his and cut off the Snake Sannin's head.
'Huh…and they say I'm ruthless.' Orochimaru thought with a smirk.
As Sasuke's sword swung down and sliced through Orochimaru's neck, a thick stream of blood coated the Uchiha and Sasuke watched Orochimaru's head fall onto the ground below. Just as Sasuke was about to sheath his sword, he watched snake's rush out of the ground where Orochimaru came out of, carrying his body. They clasped together, reattaching the Snake Sannin.
"Disgusting." Sasuke spat under his breath.
Orochimaru steadily stood back up, cracking his neck to the side and still a little woozy from losing a large amount of blood, but the Sannin had a trick up his sleeve. Orochimaru put his fingers into a very specific hand sign and suddenly Sasuke felt a searing pain in his neck.
The young Uchiha fell to one knee as his curse mark began pulsing with pain. Orochimaru chuckled with his dry raspy voice.
"Poor little Sasuke, even though you've gotten much stronger, you could never defeat me…"
Sasuke grimaced, trying to overcoming the paralyzing pain that the curse mark held, while Orochimaru was slowly approaching the teen. He felt Orochimaru's hand roughly grip his chin and make Sasuke look up at him.
Sasuke used this chance to cast a genjutsu over the Sannin with his eyes, however before Sasuke could do so, he suddenly found himself covered in some sort of pink muscle. It covered his body and restricted his movements.
"What is this?" He grunted as he struggled against his restraints.
"This is my world Uchiha!" Orochimaru's voice boomed all around as the Snake Sannin began to emerge from the ground, right in front of Sasuke. "And this is where I'll steal your body." Orochimaru smirked while licking his lips.
Sasuke stared at the man in defiance before calming himself. In this muscle he could feel Orochimaru's ambition trying to consume him, but he couldn't die here. He felt Orochimaru's will trying to overcome his own, and during this time, Sasuke felt his mind swirl in confusion. He was forgetting things about himself, losing memories that he cherished. He latched onto what he could, struggling to hold onto the idea of killing his brother and then he tried to remember another thing he cherished.
"You know, you and I, we're different from others our age... You never had parents and I lost mine, and we both carry large burdens on our shoulders. We should look out for each other more often." He whispered, hoping that Naruko had just gone to sleep. However he heard a deep happy sigh from the girl beside him.
"I would like that a lot." She said quietly, feeling her cheeks warm at what the black haired Uchiha had said. Happiness consumed her thoughts as she leaned onto his shoulder with her eyes closed.
"Oi! Get off! That doesn't mean you can sleep on me!" Sasuke whispered harshly. His only response was Naruko's soft breathing as she had already fallen asleep.
"Oi!"
"Naruko." Sasuke whispered as he felt his mind darken further and further. Then Sasuke opened his eyes, using all his power to fight Orochimaru. He forced his mind to hold onto the things he cherished and felt a rush of power that was slowly destroying Orochimaru's influence.
Orochimaru felt his body go numb and cold as the pink muscle surrounding Sasuke was turning black and expanding out towards himself.
"No! That's impossible! This is my world!" Orochimaru gasped as Sasuke's ambition clouded his own.
Sasuke suddenly felt himself back in Orochimaru's throne room. Blood covered Sasuke's body from his attack on Orochimaru earlier, dead snakes were scattered all over the floor and in front of Sasuke, was Orochimaru, lying on the floor.
Sasuke flashed through multiple hand signs before blowing out a stream of fire from his mouth. The flames covered the Snake Sannin's body and Sasuke watched the man's body turn to ashes before leaving.
Sasuke calmly walked out of the room, and as he left, Kabuto came around the corner and froze as he watched the Uchiha calmly walk by without a glance.
"Are you Orochimaru-sama?" Kabuto asked hesitantly, truly unsure of whom exactly he was speaking to.
Sasuke stopped and looked back at the white haired man. Sharingan eyes spun slowly as Sasuke glared at the man.
"What do you think?" Sasuke asked before walking away, leaving behind a confused Kabuto.
When Sasuke made it outside he fell over sideways, panting from exhaustion. No longer could he keep up his arrogant act. Sasuke's exhaustion was not only a physical one, but a mental as well. Nearly losing his memories and practically his soul, had really affected the young Uchiha. His mind was still swirling with confusion as he slowly pieced together which memories were his, causing a severe headache.
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Sakura, Kakashi and Sai sat in silence as they watched Naruko laying against a tree, her eyes downcast and seemingly empty.
"She's been like that for an hour now." Sakura mumbled.
Kakashi nodded his head, "She usually acts like this for at least a week. Tsunade-sama figured Naruko would get better overtime as she…well…killed more people."
Sakura watched Naruko with concerned green eyes.
"What happened to her to make her react like that?" Sakura asked quietly while staring across the field at Naruko.
Kakashi sighed. "I was going to have her tell you guys when she was ready but since it's already affected our mission I guess I'll explain. It happened about a year ago during an escort mission…Naruko and I were ambushed."
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Flashback
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Kakashi and Naruko pushed their backs up against a large wooden wagon filled with scared civilians. Out from the dark forest emerged dozens of chuckling bandits, merrily swinging their weapons as they laughed with dark intentions clearly hidden in their voices.
One of the bandits, presumably the leader of the group, stood before the two ninja in an arrogant stance staring directly into Kakashi's single unamused eye.
"Listen here ninja…just give us those people you have in that there wagon, and I promise no harm will ever come to you…" The leader turned his head towards Naruko and licked his lips disgustingly, "...why not give us the girl too…we'll take good care of her" He grinned.
Naruko at first felt slightly intimidated by the man staring at her so perversely, but when the other men around their leader began eyeing her as well, she felt a deep anger rising from within her chest. Her vision grew keener, her body tensed as an enormous pressure was bursting through her muscles.
"Ill kill you all before I let any of you touch me!" Naruko growled out.
Kakashi turned and looked at his student with worry. He knew that these bandits were no match for him and Naruko together, hell, Naruko could probably take them all on herself without the kyuubi's power. However, he could sense the Kyuubi's chakra mixing with her own. He would always remember the feeling that came whenever the Nine tail's dense and powerful chakra flooded into the air, and Kakashi knew that nothing good ever came from it.
"Naruko how about you calm dow-"
"Look at that boys!" The leader yelled out, overpowering Kakashi's voice, "She's feisty…" The Leader took a step forward and drew his sword. "I like that."
There were just a few moments of silence before Naruko shot herself towards the leader of the bandits. Her power so strong that there were two small craters where her feet were once standing. In the blink of an eye she was standing right in front of the man, her hand grasped tightly around his neck.
The leader's horrified eyes stared into dark red slitted eyes as he gurgled and gasped for air.
"I told you…" Naruko growled, "I'll kill you all before you lay a single hand on me!"
With incredible strength Naruko closed her hand completely around the man's neck, crushing his windpipe. The sounds of snapping bones didn't bother Naruko, in fact, she kinda liked the sound, and without a second thought she drove her other fist into the barely alive leader's chest, breaking through his ribcage and holding a heart that was beating so furiously that it might explode. It didn't have the chance though as Naruko crushed it herself.
The man dropped to the ground dead and the dozen other men around them screamed as they began to run away, however Naruko was too quick, her Kyuubi enhanced abilities allowed her to reach every single man and brutally kill them before Kakashi had even had a chance to stop the massacre. When the carnage was over and there were no longer any bodies left to slay, Naruko's eyes returned back to her deep blue color.
Kakashi landed near her almost instantly after, his hand on her shoulder. He relaxed when he realized that the Kyuubi had only been able to take control for a short amount of time.
However, Kakashi was taken out of his relaxed manor when Naruko screamed a horrifying scream. His eye quickly turned to look at her and saw that she was shaking. Naruko's blue eyes looked down at her own body covered head to toe in blood. Her eyes then rapidly scanned the forest seeing all the mutilated corpses that littered the grass. They were killed so violently that Naruko had felt the urge to throw up immediately.
A cry from the wagon brought Naruko out of her horrified trance.
"Monster!" Some woman in the wagon screamed as she pointed a finger at Naruko. "What kind of ugly monster are you?!"
"What have I done?…" Naruko whispered as tears began to well up in her eyes. She looked towards her mentor hoping that he wasn't just as disgusted with her as she herself was. "Sensei…what did I do?" Naruko cried.
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Flashback End
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"And since then, Naruko hasn't been able to kill anyone without breaking down…she's afraid she'll lose control of the Kyuubi." Kakashi said while Sakura and Sai listened with downcast expressions.
Sai was the first to stand up. Sakura looked at him, confusion marring her face.
"Sai what are you-"
Sai turned towards Sakura, a small, almost fake smile plastered on his pale face.
"I'm going to go try and cheer her up." He said before turning towards the tree Naruko was resting on and walking over.
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Naruko rested her body against a large tree trunk. She couldn't stand the feeling that was coursing through her body. A deep sense of regret and guilt, but those emotions weren't the things concerning her. No, the thing that concerned her the most was that she could tell that some part of her enjoyed killing that man, enjoyed ending a life. She was beginning to wonder if it was the Kyuubi's influence, or perhaps an even more terrifying thought if it wasn't.
"Hello Naruko." Sai's voice pierced through her thoughts.
Naruko looked away from the young man, too upset to be talking to someone she didn't particularly like. In fact, she didn't want to talk to anybody right now. Except….
"What's your favorite animal?" Sai suddenly asked.
Naruko, shocked at the sudden strange topic that came from Sai's mouth. She eyed him before sighing and returning to her silenced state.
"Mine is probably a mouse." Sai said as he pulled out his notebook and began drawing on the pages.
The girl sighed once more, really trying to show Sai that she wasn't interested in anything he had to say, especially about something so stupid as what was her favorite animal?
Suddenly she felt something small climb up onto her shoulder and she turned her head to look at the small weight that she felt. Blue eyes widened as she stared directly into the face of an all-black mouse that looked like it had been made from ink.
"Cute right?" Sai said cheerily.
Naruko wanted to resist the urge to speak and go back to her depressed state, but she was beyond curious about Sai's abilities.
"How?" Naruko whispered in awe.
Sai turned his notebook around and showed her the picture of the mouse he had drawn. "I use the ink as a catalyst for my jutsu. I can pretty much bring anything to life if I can draw it. "
Naruko nodded her head in amusement. She had never heard about such an ability before.
"What's your favorite animal?" Sai asked once more, and this time Naruko felt more inclined to answer.
"Hmmm…a fox." Naruko said.
Within moments a fox made of ink hopped out of Sai's notebook and landed directly in Naruko's lap. Naruko smiled as the fox moved around in her lap. She moved her hand towards it and watched the fox nuzzled the tips of her fingers with its face and whiskers.
Naruko let out a small laugh and continued to play with the small fox in her lap. After a few minutes Sai placed his hand out for Naruko to take.
"Let's go back home Naruko…now that you're all cheered up." Sai smiled.
Naruko took Sai's hand and slowly stood up, the fox fell from her lap and hopped around her legs while she stretched out her limbs. Sai waved over a surprised Kakashi and Sakura while turning to walk towards the village himself.
Naruko waved goodbye to the ink fox before it disappeared and began to walk back towards Konoha. Perhaps she misjudged Sai…
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Sorry that Sasuke's moment when he remembers Naruko is a little cliche', I really thought hard about that fight and I want to know your guy's opinions! Was it a good chapter? bad chapter? an "I don't care about you or your stories because you suck at writing consistently" kind of chapter? Let me know! Until Next Time!
