"You know, I find myself quite displeased today. Do you happen to know why?"
Deep below the rolling grasslands of Kusagakure, Orochimaru fixed his current lab assistant with a piercing stare, his yellow eyes narrowed as the man knelt before him, trembling slightly in fear. "No? Well, you see, this morning I received a report from our dear Karin, up in the North. According to her, only three of the subjects out of the fifty that received the new cursed seal have survived."
Orochimaru was pacing at this point, walking slowly around the only major feature of the small room- a large stone table. "Even so, I continued with today's work. But, as you can see, poor Dei'dorīmu was simply too weak to continue on." The lab assistant weakly raised his head to look where Orochimaru had indicated, only to quickly avert his eyes as he forced down the bile that shot up in response to the sight of the mutilated corpse laying on the table. "With him gone, I now have way to find out exactly what made Gen'yūmaru's family so adept with their Swift Release- setting my research back months."
Having now made a full lap around the operating table, Orochimaru redoubled his stare, flooding the room with his killing intent. "And now, you come to me, interrupting my private study, to tell me that there is an intruder in one of my most closely guarded headquarters- and that not only do you not know who he is, or how he entered- you cannot tell me where he is currently?"
"N-no, I mean, yes, my lord!" The assistant almost shouted, unable to keep his terror out of his voice.
"Pathetic. If you cannot even keep the goings on of the lab straight, then I believe it may be time to find you a more fitting position… Report to Kabuto tomorrow for your new duties. Until then, I must go find him myself, as it seems as though I must go clean up this mess myself." The killing intent instantly vanished from the room as the Sannin then turned and walked out of the room. Not a single second more was spent paying attention to the assistant, who collapsed as soon as Orochimaru had fully turned away.
Finding Kabuto proved to be no particular challenge. Orochimaru found his hurriedly rushing about in one of the central rooms of the hideout, checking on series of flashing lights embedded in heavy steel panels that stretched across the walls. Next to those were banks of large screens, each displaying grainy black and white images of various places around the hideout. "Kabuto. I do hope that you have more information for me than the 'there's someone in the lab' that I've heard so far."
Stopping what he was doing at the sound of the Sannin's voice, Kabuto gave a short bow before speaking. "I do- though unfortunately, I'm afraid there simply isn't a lot of information to have in this situation. Around thirty minutes ago, our security seals showed that someone had appeared in one of the cells in the Western block."
"Hm? What do you mean, appeared?" At his master's question, Kabuto directed his attention to one panel that still had all of its lights turned on.
"Just that, Lord Orochimaru. There was no indication that our intruder entered from outside the structure, or even further within. As far as we can tell, they just appeared in the cell." Orochimaru's eyes narrowed, a gleam appearing that Kabuto recognized as the one that he had whenever he began to contemplate a new experiment.
"Fascinating. Please, go on." With a short nod, Kabuto readjusted his glasses and continued.
"After appearing, they proceeded to cut his way through the door of the cell, killing the existing occupant in the process. They haven't stopped moving since then. They doesn't seem to know where they're going, but they certainly is determined- They've cut down anyone in his way so far." Kabuto continues to monitor the panels as he talks. Since Orochimaru entered, seven lights have gone completely dark.
"I see. And what have you been doing about this? Do you at least have any idea of what our guest looks like? Who might have sent them?" Kabuto actually seems to look flustered the question, and breaks eye contact for a moment before recomposing himself.
"There hasn't been much that I can do against them from here. They're simply moving too fast to send men to intercept them, much less do anything more complicated. In fact, they're moving too fast for our cameras And as for information… So far, there hasn't been a single one of our forces that has seen the intruder and lived to report. What I can say though is whoever they are, they specialize in slashing attacks. The cameras haven't picked up any elemental aftereffects, and the sensors also haven't reported any complex ninjutsu." Orochimaru contemplated all of this in silence, staring at a monitor that now showed a Oto shinobi that had been cut in half at the waist.
"I see… Here's what I would have you do, Kabuto. Go and get our dear Uchiha, and have him hunt down this intruder. Say that it's extra training for the day if he sulks." With a sharp nod and a quick bow, Kabuto immediately moved to leave the room. Before he could get beyond the door, Orochimaru called after him again.
"Oh, and make sure that our intruder is captured alive, if at all possible. I do believe that I may be able to make something of the day yet." Lips curling up in a cruel smirk, Kabuto turned to follow his orders.
"Yes, Lord Orochimaru."
Sasuke walked quickly down the hallway, leaving Kabuto to follow behind. The two hadn't shared any words past Kabuto hurried briefing back in his doorway, but Sasuke had made his displeasure well known through his silence. After all, it wasn't just his typical aloof detachment that he was maintaining at the moment. Rather, he was extruding just enough killing intent to make anyone around him feel his eyes on the back of their neck. He had found it to be quite effective in the past, and it was serving him well again, as Kabuto hadn't even tried to start one of his pointless conversations, or made a insult thin veiled as a comment on his training the entire walk.
Still, it's wasn't the fact that Kabuto was there that was annoying him, or even the interruption to his daily schedule that this nonsense was proving to be. It was the insinuation that Orochimaru assumed that he hadn't already been training on his own. After all, that's all that he did anymore. He had too, otherwise, the memories would become too much to bear. After all, he had been reading more on shape transformation when Kabuto had come to fetch him, and already he found his mind wandering. Idle thoughts about how the deserted corridor reminded him of the empty streets on that night, or how the ever present smell of blood thinly covered by antiseptic had filled his home for months after the slaughter. How his broth-
"Ieyasuuu!"
The downwards trend of Sasuke's thoughts was broken by a howl of rage that tore through the hall. Sasuke took a closer look at his surroundings, but he could see nothing but a few empty staircases that lead deeper underground to either side of him, and a sealed door at the end of a particularly long hallway. "If he's through there, we don't have to worry. That door's designed to lock down with some our finest seals if anyone gets in without permission- from either side. We'll be able to wait it out from there." Kabuto spoke up from his place behind Sasuke. He didn't even need to see the man to know that he had that insipid smirk on his face.
Before he could even reply, the door in question was shattered as a body was propelled through it, the seals activating too late to prevent the door from fully breaking apart. Blood and splinters flew from the breach with such force that they reached nearly halfway down the hall before coating the walls, floor, and ceiling. Backing the debris was an overpowering wave of killing intent that flooded through the broken door. Sasuke caught a sight of a white haired figure standing in the dark room behind the destroyed door, but he couldn't make out anything else before his instincts screamed out for him to duck as quickly as his body would allow. No sooner had he done so did he see the trailing edge of a tachi moving through the space where his throat had been a second before.
Bent backwards, Sasuke took a closer look at the intruder. He was a tall, lean man with bright white hair brought down into a sharp devilock that reached down between his eyes. Sasuke payed special attention to his attire, as aside from a short white white vest with violet trim, he was clad in streamlined black and silver armor. He didn't have a Hidden Village's symbol displayed, that he could see, though he did have an arrangement of kanji that may have been some sort of crest or motto engraved onto his breastplate. Out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke also saw Kabuto coming up behind the man that had just tried to decapitate him, his palms humming with his chakra scalpels. He didn't get more than two steps, however, before an arc of violet light flashed over his chest- only to be replaced by a spray of crimson as his chest was split open.
"You coward! Your tricks won't work on me, Ieyasu!" As he shouted, the man turned, sword raised as he prepared to finish the wounded scientist off. Drawing his Kusanagi from the sheath tied into his belt, Sasuke counterattacked, striking out at the man's unprotected ribs. However, it caught only air by the fact that his target simply was no longer standing there. Again reacting on instinct, Sasuke performed a last second substitution with the mangled corpse laying in the hall. Reappearing on the top step of one of the downwards leading, Sasuke only had enough time to fully activate his Sharingan before his opponent had finished cutting through his diversion and had turned back towards him. Again the man crossed the distance in less than a second, but with the Sharingan, there was enough forewarning for Sasuke to block the strike instead of merely getting out of the way. "So fast… Even with my Sharingan, it's like fighting Lee all over again. Still, in these cramped quarters, I should have the advantage over his sword skill."
Pivoting out of the way, Sasuke used the momentum of the blow to throw his opponent into the stairwell. The last thing that he expected was for the man to respond by turning to kick off of the low ceiling and launch himself towards him at the same speed of one of his charges. Unable to dodge in the literal second before impact, Sasuke was knocked back off of his feet as the pair was propelled backwards into the opposing staircase.
Tumbling down the stairs, Sasuke barely kept his opponent's tachi off of his neck with the use of his own. Even as they switched positions, the sword never got over an inch away from his throat, and after one particularly hard bump, even drew a line of blood across his Adam's apple as it pressed through the skin. However, one thing began to occupy his mind as they fell - the man's eyes. They were a deep hazel, almost black next to his pupils. His eyes were severely dilated, the contrast of the dark points with the surrounding whiteness giving his gaze a razor sharp intensity. But unlike what Sasuke was used to seeing, it was not the unrestrained rage exhibited by so many of those that he had fought, or even the animalistic bloodlust present in a few of his more savage opponents. Rather, his eyes were clear and focused; all of his fury focused onto one target. Sasuke had never encountered such clear intent in any other gaze. In fact, it reminded him of nothing more than his own.
The fall seemed to last forever, especially as they missed the landing one floor down, and continued all the way to the bottom of the third flight of stairs. As they landed roughly on the final floor, the intruder was on top of Sasuke once again, and having made no headway on slitting his throat, decided to adopt a new tactic. Taking the sheath that he had been holding in his left hand, the white haired man began to savagely beat at Sasuke's face with it.
"Bastard! Kneel your head and perish like a dog of the Tokugawa deserves!" The man continued to reign blows down on the Uchiha with one hand while the other kept his sword locked across his neck. Several of the blows hit home- one causing his nose to crack as it bent out of shape- before Sasuke managed to get the leverage to slam him into the wall with a powerful kick. Smoothly moving backwards into the new hall, Sasuke put some distance between himself and the intruder, as he was already getting back to his feet.
"Hn. I suppose I was wrong about his abilities in cramped spaces. I need to get to an area where I can control the flow of the fight, or I'll have the disadvantage of being on the defensive." Taking a split second to recall the layout of the hideout, and the path that he took to reach this place, Sasuke formed his plan. As the intruder came charging at him again, he simply dodged and shunshined backwards, further down the hall, while the blade swept millimeters from his shoulder.
"I can still only see his movements a second before they happen! I have to time this perfectly…" The next several minutes pushed the Sharingan to the limits of their ability, as Sasuke lead the intruder down a path. Weaving around the often reckless strikes, Sasuke still took several grazing hits along his chest and arms where there was either.a follow up that was too close to fully avoid, or the angles of the hall trapped him for a millisecond too long. The pair almost danced through the labyrinthine halls, until Sasuke finally wove backwards into a cavernous room dominated by a massive open mouthed serpent's head, sculpted as if it were about to strike at any second.
"The training room. Here's where I'll turn this around." Deflecting the next strike into the ground, Sasuke moved as far across the room as he could in one shunshin, putting around three fourths of the space between them. Stabbing his sword into the and settling back out into a neutral stance, he spoke to his opponent while beginning to form hand seals. "You've done well so far. Not many could push an Uchi-"
"Shut up! I don't care about your name! You are simply an inconvenience on my path to Ieyasu's head! Be gone!" Blurring even to his enhanced sight, the intruder resumed his assault. With just enough time to finish the seals, Sasuke spat a massive fireball into his path with his family's favorite technique. Pausing his charge for a barely a second, the other swordsman slashed vertically upwards with enough force to both cut the approaching sphere in two and to form a vacuum large enough to continue moving unhindered. As he exited the other side of the rapidly dissipating fireball, Sasuke had already prepared his next move.
"Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu!" Sasuke launched a swarm of smaller fireballs at the intruder who seemed to start flickering as he wove back forth through the cloud of projectiles with ease. As he passed the last few, Sasuke pulled his arm back, causing an array of hidden shuriken attached to hidden wires to fly backwards towards his opponent's unprotected back. The man hardly flinched at this, deflecting the majority of the blades away with a simple slash behind his back while continuing to charge unimpeded. Within moments, he was with within Sasuke's guard, sword already streaking out towards his unguarded stomach. At the last possible second, Sasuke's hand tightened around the hilt of his sword as he began to channel lightning chakra through it.
"Chidori Nagashi." The ground around the pair erupted with crackling arcs of blue white energy as the intruder's body seized from the electricity coursing through it. The man made a sound halfway between a cry of pain and a guttural howl of rage, but Sasuke paid it no mind as he cut the current. As he was trapped in place, spasming helplessly, Sasuke grabbed his opponent's head, forcing him to make eye contact, and cast both of them into the nightmare world of the Sharingan's genjutsu.
The genjutsu took the form of the living room from Sasuke's childhood home, though the usually spotless room was torn apart, with liberal amounts of blood staining every surface. Sasuke regarded the sight with a scowl- after all, he had learned that the first rule of genjutsu was that the subconscious state of you and your target could influence the nature of a vision. With that in mind, it was no surprise that whatever he had envisioned would be marred by the intruder's rage. Disregarding that fact for now, he turned to regard his captive.
The white haired man was standing in the center of the torn apart room. A thick steel collar was locked around his throat, connected to the ceiling by no less than seven chains that had been made from metal thicker around than an average arm. Similar chains attached to shackles around his wrists, ankles, and waist, anchored in the floor. Sasuke spent several minutes looking at him impassively before finally addressing him.
"I suppose I should have you answer some questions before handing you over... First of all- who are you?" For once, he had to work to keep his tone flat and uninterested- not hard, of course, as he had more than enough experience with it- as something about the man left him wanting to find out more.
"I am Ishida Mitsunari, Left Arm of the Toyotomi, and the one who will take your wretched master's head, as well as your o-!" As soon as Mitsunari's threats had shifted in target, his restraints lit up with arcs of electricity, the room taking on an almost black and white appearance under the harsh light. In total, the surge of energy lasted only for several seconds, tearing a short noise of pain from the captive. However, even through the pain, Mitsunari showed no sign of his discomfort aside from a slight tensing of his posture. He locked eyes with Sasuke, and refused to break his stare.
"Master… Are you talking about Orochimaru, or this… Tokugawa Ieyasu?" The edge of Mitsunari's lip curled up into a snarl.
"I will kill Ieyasu, and any who have allied themselves with him!" Mitsunari spat back.
Sasuke began to pace, breaking away from Mitsunari's stare as he slowly circled around behind him. "So, he didn't come here for Orochimaru. Though, the snake might be allied with this Ieyasu. If so…"
"You keep talking about Ieyasu, but I've never heard of him. Who is he?" Mitsunari's reaction was visible even from behind, as his every muscle tensed up.
"Don't you dare pretend not to know! You work for that traitorous scum, the one who stole my light, my reason to live! You've fallen for his hypocritical speeches about "bonds" and "friendship," you stand in the way of my vengeance, and you have the gall to say that you don't even know him! Unforgivable! I'll have your he-" Sasuke returned to look Mitsunari in the eyes again just as the chains lit up with electricity again, stopping his threat short. After waiting a second for the energy to die down, the Uchiha held his hand out to the side, his sword materializing in a burst of black fire.
"Hn. That's all I needed to know. It's almost a shame, though. You and I… We're alike. Avengers, steeped in darkness. Ones who know hatred." Drawing back his chokutō, Sasuke prepared to end the interrogation when he was interrupted.
"Alike... You think you know hatred? You think you've experienced anything like what have?! That your misery is anywhere near my own?! How DARE you?!" Mitsunari's eyes had begun glowing a hellish red, and his head and shoulders were wreathed in a dark violet fire that turned black around the edges. Not wanting to let the situation progress any further, Sasuke brought his blade down, aiming to cut cleanly through the intruder's chest. Instead, the fire exploded outwards, stopping the Kusanagi like it was a physical shield. Before he could do more than express his disbelief, the fire continued outwards, running along the chains until the entire room was alight. With a howl, a mix between the roar of a firestorm and something far more human, the roof caved in, and the illusion shattered.
Sasuke snapped back to reality in a haze, staggering backwards as he tried to steady himself. "How did he… It shouldn't be possible to overpower the Sharingan!" There was barely a second to consider the implications of this, however, as the Uchiha realized that Mitsunari had also recovered. He was crouched, tensed and preparing to draw his sword. The red glowing coming from his eyes and the violet fire from the illusion were still present, much to Sasuke's surprise.
"Fall to rot!" Sasuke quickly threw himself back, narrowly dodging a pair of slashes that would have cut his throat. Weaving as he moved back, he narrowly danced around several more strikes before using a short shunshin to put some distance between him and his opponent. As soon as he came to a stop, his Sharingan filled with paths of future cuts, surrounding him in a cloud. Seemingly in an instant, the room filled with the sound of metal on metal, as Sasuke furiously parried the strikes even as the ground around him was torn apart by the flurry of metal. He managed to deflect the majority, and all of the ones that would have resulted in mortal wounds, but several slipped arounds his guard, scoring bloody cuts through his white robes. Before the air could stop moving, Mitsunari appeared in the wake of the attack, crouched in Sasuke's guard.
The Uchiha managed to bring his sword up to block the first strike, but wasn't able to pull it away from the rain of blows that followed it. Mitsunari swung down at his head five times, each impact stronger than the last. As the final swipe hit home, Sasuke's sword shattered under the weight. Mitsunari staggered, the momentum carrying him forwards. Seizing the opening, Sasuke shunshined backwards, already snapping through hand seals. As soon as he landed, he thrust his left hand forwards. "Chidori Eisō!"
A bright white line of electricity shot forwards, formed into a spear of energy. Before it could hit home, Mitsunari was already racing forwards, leaning towards the right to let the blade cross over his shoulder. Sasuke pressed him by swinging the spear out to take his head, but the motion proved to be too slow as the intruder crossed back under the blade and rapidly closed in. Sasuke started to bring the spear back inwards to cut him off, but Mitsunari struck faster, taking off the first joints of the Uchiha's pinky and ring fingers as he aimed to bisect his opponent across the chest. Sasuke avoided the mortal portion of the blow by stepping back sharply, letting the Chidori dissipate, and began channeling chakra for an shunshin. As Mitsunari began the second stroke of his assault, the Uchiha was already six feet behind him, hand wreathed in electricity.
Not wasting a second, Sasuke struck out with the Chidori, dashing towards Mitsunari's exposed back. As he was just about to strike, the intruder turned, grabbing Sasuke's arm with one hand and slamming his sheathed sword into his stomach with the other. The Uchiha found himself doubled over, electricity arcing as it sparked back and forth between MItsunari's metal armor and Sasuke's arm, forming a short circuit. Both men tensed as the voltage spiked through their bodies, locking them into place. Unlike Sasuke, MItsunari began to move, pushing past the pain by sheer force of will as he pushed the other man down to the ground.
Sasuke found himself pinned to the floor by Mitsunari's boot, the aftershocks of the Chidori still echoing through his muscles. "Can't get the leverage I need like this… Nothing big enough to substitute with. If I can get eye contact…" A small flicker of chakra built up in his Sharingan, until a muscle twitch disrupted the energy. A quick test showed that his chakra control had been thoroughly disrupted like that throughout his body.
"Dammit! It can't end like this! Not here! Not now!" Sasuke defiantly stared up, meeting Mitsunari's gaze- the Uchiha's Sharingan locked with Ishida's glowing red eyes-as he began to tap into curse seal of heaven. He could feel the dark markings burning as they spread across his skin, but even that seemed to be too slow as his opponent already had his blade drawn back, ready to take off his head. The second seemed to stretch into infinity as the two stared each other down. Then, for an instant, Mitsunari seemed to hesitate, arm locked just before he could deliver the killing blow as the unearthly fire and glow left his features.
"Fuuton: Diatoppa!"
Sasuke had to snap his head to the side to follow Mitsunari's trajectory as he was blasted off of his feet by a massive burst of wind. He was carried across the room until he impacted heavily against the wall- the crunch of broken bones audible even where Sasuke was laying. After a second, he slid down the wall, where he lay in a crumpled heap. "Oh, don't worry. With that force, from this distance, he's almost definitely unconscious, with a broken arm- maybe a few broken ribs as well."
Looking back, Sasuke saw a smiling Orochimaru walking in flanked by two masked Oto shinobi. "As for you, my dear Uchiha… Well done. Your swordsmanship held up admirably against his, though it is a shame about your blade. Still, it's not like it can't be replaced." Beginning to stand, Sasuke gave a disinterested grunt in response. "Well, for now, go and see Kabuto and get healed up. The end of that was a bit close for comfort… Though, I'm sure that it was all in hand. Right, Sasuke?"
Not even dignifying the question with a response, Sasuke walked off towards Kabuto's lab, barely sparing a glance back at the intruder. Orochimaru similarly turned his attention towards Mitsunari, as he moved towards where he had fallen. His attendants were already hard at work, sealing away his weapon as well as placing several security seals on the man himself. After taking a second to check the unconscious man's pulse, he addressed the other shinobi. "You, take our guest to a holding cell and prepare him for transport. And you… Send a message to the Northern lab. Tell them to prepare my operating theater. I'll be arriving early, and have quite the subject to work with."
Techique Naame Translations:
Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu- Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu
Chidori Nagashi- Chidori Current
Chidori Eisğ- Chidori Sharp Spear
Fuuton: Diatoppa- Wind Style: Great Breakthrough