Another chapter is here!

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The Sharingan flared to life in the wake of Orochimaru's presence. A swirl of colors greeted Sasuke immediately, a discrepancy within the man's chakra compared to when they last met in the Forest of Death. Since he never forgot what he saw as long as he had his Sharingan active, it stuck out. "Your chakra is different."

"Perceptive." The Snake Sannin smirked. "You've gotten better with noticing such things. Let's just say that it is a consequence of my demise and resurrection. Normally, I would stay in my lab until it settled, but I wanted to see how well you've progressed in my absence. However, should you need further proof that I am who I am…"

Sasuke sucked in a sharp breath in surprise as the Cursed Seal reacted beneath the seal placed over it when the pale man pointed to him. Markings crawled like ivy over his neck and collarbone, leaving Sasuke with little doubt it was him. "How are you even still alive?"

"One of the fruits of my research has been ways to break the cycle of death. I once desired to do the same for the village, but the Old Fool saw my methods as too… unsavory. So no matter how many times I am killed, I can be resurrected and try again to accomplish my goals."

Considering his point proven, Orochimaru dropped his hand and the seal went inert as he looked around at the training ground. "Such wanton destruction seems a bit excessive, but I suppose it's understandable with your abrupt and unexplained imprisonment within the village."

"They just said that Kakashi was on a mission and that I wouldn't be allowed to leave until I got express permission from the Hokage," Sasuke said. "They didn't give me a reason why, but I'm guessing it's because you came back and they think it'll keep me safe."

"A foolish reason when you consider that I'm standing right in front of you at this very moment. If I desired to take you there would be nothing they could do to stop me." He chuckled when he saw that caused Sasuke to frown defensively. "Not that I was implying that you would be easy for me to take, merely that the village has no way to do as they claim. Another example would be how your brother and Kisame, two members of Akatsuki, entered the village, maimed three of the elites among their forces, and then left."

Tempering himself, Sasuke did recall his brother was talking to someone who was dressed the same during their encounter. The shark-looking man. "What is Akatsuki and why are they helping him?"

"They're a group of S-Class shinobi who have abandoned their villages and act as mercenaries," Orochimaru explained. "Or at least that's how they market themselves. The truth is a bit more complicated in that they gather information on Jinchuuriki, such as that Gaara child and your little teammate. I suspect they intend to hunt them down soon."

A jolt of surprise ran through Sasuke at that… and then things started making a lot more sense. Itachi had made it clear he intended to return after bonds of friendship had been fostered while he thought Sasuke was unconscious. That must've been what he planned to do. He was going to come back for Naruto in order to get him to attain the next level of his Sharingan and accomplish his mission at the same time.

Orochimaru waited for Sasuke to digest that in his head before he spoke again. "Tell me something, Sasuke-kun. You've seen the gap between you and Itachi once more, so I ask you this question: Do you intend to continue to seeking vengeance against him?"

"I will kill him," Sasuke said immediately, burning hatred in his voice. "That will never change! My clan will be avenged!"

"I have no doubt you desire to do so, but I'm asking if you believe that will be allowed to?"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed at the implication that he needed to be allowed to do what he was obligated to as the sole survivor of their clan. For an Uchiha, one was supposed to honor their family and fallen. There was nothing more important than that. "I don't need permission to do anything."

The Shake Sannin shook his head. "Leaving aside the fact that you are a shinobi of this village and thus bound to the Hokage's words, you are the last of your clan. Do you really think that they would allow such an encounter when the first sign of my resurrection they squirrel you away without telling you anything? You would be lucky if word ever reached you of him being sighted, let alone being allowed to face Itachi."

Sasuke clenched his fist hard enough that his arm began to tremble. They hadn't even told him when Itachi showed up before. It was only because of a slip of the tongue that he knew. "I don't care what they will allow me to do. I'm going to make Itachi pay for killing my family, and everyone in my clan. No one is getting in the way of that!"

Orochimaru looked into the pair of Sharingan unwavering, as though looking for any trace of doubt in his words. He clearly liked what he saw because his lips turned upwards as he reached behind his back and pulled out two scrolls. "That's just what I wanted to hear. Take these then."

Sasuke caught the two scrolls lazily tossed his way. "What are these?"

"The first is a temporary contract of sorts to the Snake Summonings that I use," he explained. "I'm sure that you know by now that there is a barrier of sorts around the village that detects when one leaves the grounds or enter it through ordinary means. If you sign it then you'll be able to perform one summoning and they will be able to reverse summon you in turn. Through this method you will be able to leave the village should you choose to abandon it to seek out your vengeance without them being aware, ensuring that you aren't simply dragged back minutes after your departure. If you wish to establish a more permanent contract that can be arranged at a later date."

Sasuke confirmed as much by opening it up and viewing it himself. "And the second?"

"A storage scroll containing everything you would need to elevate my little gift to you to the next level," Orochimaru said. "I would suggest going through all the details beforehand and following them precisely, should you choose to unlock the power within it."

Sasuke looked at him suspiciously as he slipped the scrolls into his back pouch. "Why are you just giving these to me? What do you gain from this?"

"That is a good question," Orochimaru said as he tapped on his chin in thought. "I can give you a number of reasons for doing so. For example, I have my own grievances against your brother and think it would be excellent if he died by your hands. And I do take some pleasure in preserving and documenting rare bloodlines that are on the verge of extinction. However, I don't really think that it matters all that much what reason I give you, since you only seek to whatever power you can get your hands on to deal with your brother."

"Is that a problem?" Sasuke asked.

"There's no shame in desiring to be stronger in this world, Sasuke-kun." A sinister chuckle echoed from Orochimaru's throat as his body began to turn into mud and fall apart. "I won't judge you for the means by which you accomplish your goal, as it would make me a hypocrite. Until that day comes when you decide to leave this village behind and come to me, I'll simply settle for watching you grow from the shadows. Don't disappoint me…."

Soon there was nothing left but mud and silence in the clearing, leaving Sasuke alone with his thoughts as the words of the Snake Sannin slithered their way into his heart. While he didn't trust what the man said, he did need all the power he could muster if he was going to carry out his vengeance. It still left the scrolls in his pouch feeling heavy...

[-oOo-]

At the same time that Sasuke was gifted by the Snake Sannin, a low rumble left Naruto's throat as he looked over the information he was bequeathed by the Toad Sage while he was absent. It contained information he'd gathered on Naruto's parents and homeland, as well as a few scrolls on other things. That unfortunately included homework, for lack of a better term.

He had to do research on some of the politics of the village and things of that nature. They were things a Hokage needed to know, and while Naruto supposed it was better to learn about it now rather than later, it didn't change the fact that it was really boring and took him effort to get through. "It feels like it's making my brain ache."

"Suck it up," one of his clones said as it looked through one of the technique scrolls that was left behind. It was an invisibility technique of some kind that would aid him in escaping fights that it would be better to retreat from, rather than stick it out to where he'd need the Nine-Tailed Fox's chakra to deal with. His access to that chakra was still sealed anyway.

If Naruto had to be honest, he was hoping he might find the Fourth Hokage's technique within it. But Jiraiya left a note saying that while he would have left what he knew of his father's Flying Thunder God technique, which was little given that his home and notes were destroyed during the Fox's rampage, he was afraid that Naruto would accidentally teleported himself into a wall without someone overseeing him. That happened during a testing with a Shadow Clone, apparently.

The original Naruto turned from his perch on his bed towards the clone and shot him a glare. "You don't get to complain. You're the one who gets to look at the technique while I get glorified Academy work."

The clone shrugged. "Not my fault you picked paper when you should have picked rock."

The original's eyes narrowed until he was leering at his clone. "You do remember I can dispel you, right?"

"True, but we know you won't." A smug grin formed on the clone's face. "After all, that would mean you couldn't win an argument with yourself and decided to take the easy way out. And all the other clones you make will know it too, so you're stuck with it."

"Neither one of you gets to complain," another clone chimed in from the table, whose head was buried in a book that the original picked up from the Library after dropping Karin off at her place. "I'm the one stuck here trying to figure out how to do this date thing and the book you picked out on dating a kunoichi might not have been the wisest choice. I now know more about the ways that I can be killed for so much as saying the wrong thing to a woman and having it misinterpreted into a threat or double-meaning than a man should know. Not that we can do most of the things in this book for a number of reasons."

"Like what?" asked the original. He had picked up the book because he was trying to follow Ayame's advice and create an experience for her to remember, but he wanted it to be special as well. Granted, he just skimmed it since he wanted to get home rather than give it an in-depth review.

The second clone closed the book and counted off on his fingers. "Like creating a block of stone with an Earth technique and then carving it into her likeness using only a butter knife and Wind chakra, or using a Fire technique to cook something to perfection while putting on a performance blindfolded, or using a genjutsu to create a fancy illusion."

"We don't know how to do any of that."

"No, but it did give me some ideas on what we could do," the second clone said. "You remember that night she taught us how to do the Water-Walking exercise?"

The original Naruto rubbed his chin as he thought back to that moment. He could vividly recall her scent and the warmth of her body against his as they danced beneath the pale moon. "Yeah, how could I forget?"

"We could do something like that, having dinner on the lake's surface with floating candles and everything."

"That'll work," he agreed. "I can reserve a practice field and then have a bunch of clones make sure that it's clean and tidy by the time night comes around. Maybe even have a few disguised like servers in a fancy restaurant."

"But how exactly do you plan to stay afloat while having dinner?" asked the first clone. "We want her attention to be on enjoying herself, not concentrating on trying not to sink or risking running out of chakra."

"And then we'd need to deal with any bugs flying around in the area," the other clone added. "And find something nice to cook. That or take-out."

The original sighed as he rubbed the back of his head. His clones were making good points. He then looked at his clock. "Alright, it's getting late and I've got to do the seal thing for the mask, so—"

The second clone jumped up and snapped his fingers as inspiration struck. Then, instead of explaining it, the clone grinned and then willingly dispersed itself. The thought process that branched from the others was instantly inserted into their minds as the chakra making it up returned to them.

"That could work," the remaining clone said. "I mean, we'd have to ask around a lot, but it could work."

The original nodded. "We'll do that in the morning, after we visit Gaara. For now though, write up the list of things we need and people we need to talk to. I'm going to take a shower."

[-oOo-]

The next day, the rattle of Chakra Chains filled the air as Karin swung them around her with a spin, whereupon they met with the incoming kunai and deflected them. She then brought her arms around while extending the length produced from her palms and then angled them downwards. The ends of the chains, which were sharp points meant to penetrate, speared towards the kunoichi standing opposite of her.

The kunoichi of Team Gai, Tenten, flipped to the side and out of the way of the initial attempt, leaving them to penetrate the ground harmlessly. But the serpentine chains quickly forced themselves out from beneath her, having tunneled through the ground, and would have entwined her if she hadn't dodged again. She quickly reached into her pouch and then threw down a smoke bomb to obscure her from view.

It was useless. Karin's Mind's Eye could track her chakra down and allowed her to manipulate her chains towards Tenten. They snaked her way and tried to encircle her until she recognized the throwing motion being made right before a flurry of shuriken burst from the smoke towards her. Karin barely managed to duck in time, only for something hard to hit her on the head. "Ow!"

She broke off the chains and rubbed her head where she'd been hit. A glance to the ground showed what had hit her. It was a practice stick, the kind used for sparring in place of a short-sword, with a wire wrapped around it.

"If this had been a chain-sickle, it would have buried itself right into your skull," Tenten said as she emerged from the smoke and pulled on the wire, sending it back to her as she took up a starting stance again. "If your focus is on manipulating the chains to chase someone down, you'll be vulnerable to projectiles or being blindsided from behind or above. Only try something like that if you're ambushing them from a safe location."

"Got it." Karin entered into the same stance. They had been going at it since this morning, when Sakura had introduced her to the weapon-enthusiast. Once Tenten gave the nod to begin again, Karin thrust her arm forward while launching a chain long enough to cross the distance with a weight on the end.

It was dodged as Tenten ducked off to the side. Then she countered by pulling out a sealing slip and injecting chakra into it. From the sealing script emerged a spray of senbon towards Karin, the steel rain spreading wide as it crossed the distance.

Karin was forced to dodge by diving out of the way and into a roll. Or at least she intended to until her arm was jerked back and she fell short, landing on her side rather than a neat roll. She winced as she looked to see that Tenten had shoved a kunai through a link in the chain and then into the ground, pinning it into place.

"Don't leave your chain extended when it's connected to your body," Tenten lectured. "Someone as strong as Gai-sensei or Lee would be able to send you flying with a tug just from how strong they are. Now keep going."

Karin dismissed that chain while swinging her other hand around. Another chain emerged from the palm and lashed out, forcing Tenten to jump back out of range. Rising to her feet, Karin retracted it to a more manageable length to avoid a repeat of what just happened.

The practice session continued until later that evening. Steel littered the training ground by the time that Tenten called an end to it and they started retrieving them, as was etiquette for the use of the field. They had roughly gathered them all up when Sakura returned with Naruto in tow.

"Did you have a nice training session?" Naruto asked.

Karin nodded. "I've got the basics down at least."

"You'll have to develop your own style from here on," Tenten said in response to that. "Just remember to keep the length of the chains down to something manageable. It's easier and quicker to control that way using momentum, allows you more freedom of movement, and you'll be able to surprise them when you do control it."

"I understand," Karin said, giving her a slight bow. "Thank you for doing this for me."

"It's not a problem. We kunoichi need to stick together after all and I got the chance to see how to deal with a Sensor, so it was a fair exchange."

That said and done, Naruto, Sakura, and Karin made their way back towards the residential area of the village. Along the way, Karin did her best not to look suspicious as Naruto and Sakura exchanged whispers with one another. She expected they would have some secrets between them and didn't want to seem pushy with him after telling Sakura how she felt about him, so she bottled her questions until they reached a crossroads. That was where Sakura split off to head elsewhere, after sighing and then giving Naruto a nod.

Once the two Uzumaki were alone, Naruto asked, "Karin-chan, do you have something planned this weekend?"

"Not that I know of," she said. "Is there something you want me to do, like cook?"

"Nah, I've just got a little surprise planned for you," he said with a grin on his face. "It's just going to take me a bit to get it ready by then, but I'm sure you'll like it."

The way he framed that did leave her curious, but what that surprise was remained unsaid as he finished escorting her home. No matter. She could wait until then to find out, and she was sure if it was something he thought of it would be something she liked.