He didn't have to wait long.
Zetsu came and was already there at the same time. Sasuke didn't know how he didn't notice him, notice the large humanoid plant, with half his form black as ink and the other half a sickly white. The thing was a flytrap dressed in the Akatsuki wear, his plant bits shielding his face, bursting through his robe. Sasuke knew of interesting ninja with various bodily disfigurements, usually an indication of some special type of kekkai genkai or body modification for battle. But Zetsu didn't look human… didn't look like he needed those things. His plant form breathed and shuddered breath, unfolding to reveal the face within. He was a vision of the bond with nature Orochimaru craved, a superior human being and someone the snake would covet to study.
He wasn't human, no, Sasuke could see it as he came near, barefooted, two different legs. The plant thing was alive, and vocal, shaking and creaking at him with its displeasure.
"It looks like you are to be our new teammate."
Our? Sasuke frowned.
"Be nice, Black Zetsu, Konan has said Orochimaru is here to stay this time. Isn't that right, Orochimaru-san?"
Sasuke blinked. So they were two in one. Two separate personalities… He watched them as they interacted and argued, White Zetsu in defense of him from getting his body eaten (he chose to ignore this) and Black Zetsu finding him 'interesting'. Sasuke thought then of the curse mark seal on his shoulder, pulsing with stolen chakra, throbbing through his sleepless nights… and that maybe this deformed ninja and him were secretly the same. Orochimaru was a part of him now, and Sasuke acted out his personality. It was apt that he teamed up with this Zetsu character, and the other nin didn't even know it, couldn't even see that Sasuke was playing doubles too.
This ninja smelled disturbingly soft and sweet, Sasuke thought to himself, he smelled warm like thickened honey. It was cloying, but comforting… a subtle calming effect flush through his body.
"Interesting," Sasuke commented aloud.
"What is?"
"You drugging me and believing I wouldn't notice."
'You drugged him?-' Black Zetsu's side of face curled up in a perfect half circle. "You've adapted to his body well."
"Of course," Sasuke shrugged. "It's mine." He wasn't actually lying.
Black Zetsu hummed aloud.
"Good. That means you'll be well-prepared for our first mission."
…
He knew that the goal of the Akatsuki was to collect Jinchuuriki. It was why his brother had pursued Naruto in the first place, back when they were still a team, when he was jealous that his brother had recognized Naruto's power more. Now he knew better. Sasuke wasn't so sensitive as to not see the bigger picture before him, that Naruto was just one of many, that the hunt for his tailed beast was a plan long in the making, one that had nothing to do with him. Sasuke should be grateful at the lack of his brother's interest. The freedom to pursue his brother only came with that fact, the success of his infiltration banked on the truth that Itachi didn't care.
He thought they would be going after the first of Naruto's kin, and Sasuke steeled himself and steadied his hands. He thought they would reel the beast-jinchuuriki-human being like Naruto (like Gaara) – into where the Akatsuki collected these things and Sasuke would finally meet his brother again. Instead, Zetsu walked, for his sake, in the direction Sasuke came.
Black Zetsu spoke. "It's been years since you've teamed with us, so I won't be upset if you forgot some things." He seemed to answer his unspoken questions.
Why are we going back the way I came?
Sasuke frowned.
"What could I possibly forget?" he challenged. What are you implying?
Black Zetsu mused. "If you happen to remember working with Sasori, I must tell you that I am different. You will be too. We won't be collecting jinchuuriki."
Sasuke froze.
What?
"We'll be collecting… other things. Konan primed me to inform you of that. She's asked me personally to keep an eye on you, at Pain's orders, of course."
Zetsu didn't deign to acknowledge his reaction, he wasn't even looking, he simply walked his mismatched feet forward. That plant form of his was dominating, bulky and taking presence in his vision, his cool shadow draped over him and blocking out the sun as he passed. The disjointed grin on his face was unnerving, and knowing – making Sasuke furrow his brows slightly in confusion. He didn't know how to react. White Zetsu kept his silence, he was suspiciously quiet while his counterpart did all the speaking for him.
Sasuke watched all this and knew he shouldn't say anything. He should ignore it. It didn't matter anymore whether other Akatsuki members suspected him or not, so long as he could fool his brother, and so long as he was reinstated into the organization in the first place. He wasn't here to be 'making friends'.
"Are you threatening me? What are you trying to tell me, Zetsu?"
"Personally, I don't care of your reasons," Zetsu offered peacefully. He's changed the nature of the discussion, however. He seemed to bring any suspicion of him into the point of the conversation, though Sasuke felt it unnecessary.
But if he wanted to irritate him, it was working.
Sasuke gave a low, thoughtful sound in his throat. It was a slow rumble, dangerous, and an unspoken threat. "But you're interested nonetheless, aren't you? Is that why you're deliberately inciting me?"
"Am I? Is it working?"
He shouldn't react to the bait. But not responding would expose him, letting this man continue making these accusations of Orochimaru's memory would damn him.
Sasuke sighed. "… and what were those orders?" he relented.
The thing that was questionably human to him, grinned.
"That you are not entirely who you say you are… Are you? What are you?"
"Should you be the one asking me that?" he asked pointedly.
"Oh, this thing is what concerns you," Zetsu commented, indicating towards the plant pieces growing from him. "Or does it interest you?"
Zetsu enjoyed his own joke, smiling and poking at the thought of him being Orochimaru, though there was a certain truth to his statement. It did concern him to be around ninjas that were all, if not more than his brother's caliber, and with weird bodily enhancements at that. It was a problem because he had been planning on entering the Akatsuki quietly and without violent engagement, though it seemed he was getting too ahead of himself. The Akatsuki pairs clearly weren't based on compatibility, much less basic niceties, though he figured they were individually powerful enough to bypass any need for efficient teamwork.
Then again, he was starting to really dislike this Zetsu character, though that could be himself talking.
Sasuke didn't expect any welcome arms but neither did he want of this – loaded conversation and defensive ambiguity – because he was already tired of his own lies. He should know better though, the moment he took Orochimaru's name as his own, and walked here in the man's shoes.
It concerned Sasuke that they weren't even collecting jinchuuriki in the first place. That was all that he knew of the Akatsuki, of their purpose and their vocation. That was what he prepared himself for, should the time come to collect the Nine-tailed fox – though he didn't know of their personal reasons for collecting tailed beasts nor their greater charter as an organization. It was easier, being with Orochimaru, whose goals seemed straightforward and simple, only an individual's pursuit of knowledge and god-like immortality. The Akatsuki were a group however, made up of different private convictions and varying loyalties, and Zetsu seemed the most shady of them all.
"If we're not to be collecting jinchuuriki, then what?" he demanded, tired of the confusion.
White Zetsu chimed in. "You didn't tell him his first mission, Zetsu. Maybe if we got this out of the way, everyone would be happy."
"You're right, I forgot." Sasuke's eyes were wary on this thing beside him, the two halves lined with serrated plant teeth growing tall into the sun. The words coming out of this Zetsu's mouth were secondary to the knowing grin before his eyes.
Black Zetsu sounded amused to his concern. "That's what I'm here for – for you."
…
Sasuke stood over a dead body.
The lying form of Orochimaru was splayed before him, snake skin grafted and flaying out in its layers like hair shafts. It was like dirty clothes discarded on the floor, worn and forgotten. Orochimaru's body was abused all throughout his life and it showed in his death, his body emaciated, brittle, and surprisingly old. His true age finally revealed as his corpse colored a graying pallor over bloodless veins. The skin of his neck retained their uncanny stretchy-ness, coiling up in a circle on the floor. His mouth remained elongated into a gruesome, fanged smile, Orochimaru's last moments when his jaw was aimed for Sasuke.
If Zetsu was watching and waiting for his reaction, he wasn't going to get any. If he expected any sort of sentimentality he had towards his 'previous avatar,' then he was enjoying an idea of it. Sasuke looked at his 'old self' and felt the skin of his arms itch and the hairs of his nape prickle at the disturbing coil of a corpse. In death, Orochimaru was ever flexible, as if rigor mortis never settled in. It was unsettling, if not pitying, to see what was left of one of the great sannin, and what the man would inevitably be forever remembered as.
Sasuke's Sharingan eyes memorized the splay of what was left of Orochimaru, and remained quiet.
"Any last goodbyes?"
"This is what you do, collect bodies," Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Akatsuki's hunter nin."
Zetsu smiled. "You may have occupied a new person but even you know not to leave the previous skin lying around. This isn't like you."
Sasuke narrowed his eyes at him. "You won't find anything of value here."
"Is that so?"
"I didn't expect this to be necessary, having left the Akatsuki years ago."
"You're right, it's not." Zetsu's plant form creaked open wider, and appeared as if he was growing larger in size. "But our Lord Pain wants to be sure."
Sasuke blinked. "About what?"
Instead of answering, Zetsu performed only two hand signs, and then he was gone. It happened in a flash. One moment Sasuke was in the presence of the one thing that could separate him from the seal in his neck, the last vestiges of Orochimaru as an individual, and the next the body was gone, and his choice taken away from him. He saw the plant teeth that was a part of Zetsu stretch and adjust, shivering and creaking as it 'swallowed'.
Sasuke swore, as the seal on his neck made itself known. It seared bright red, burning and twisting on his skin, though he couldn't tell if that was just his nerves.
If what was left of Orochimaru in him was active, and conscious, watching its own body get eaten, he would soon have bigger problems to contend with.
"Done. You are very tasty, Orochimaru-sama."
Sasuke glowered. "Are you satisfied? What did you find?"
Black Zetsu spoke. "I have to digest the body first, and let my stomach acids eat away through bone and your cranium before I can get to your brain. Then I will have access to the information I need. Let's hope what I learn will be agreeable to Lord Pain, unless there's really nothing for you to hide."
"You won't find anything here."
"Good. I was ordered to report to Lord Pain everything I know."
Zetsu deftly turned away from him and Sasuke activated his Sharingan. He stood, wary of the ninja standing before him, who seemed rooted to the spot, digesting. Sasuke had never heard of cannibalistic ninja but there was always a time for firsts, especially after experiments like Orochimaru. He held a hand on the hilt of his sword, eyes at the ready for another swift motion.
Sasuke knew Zetsu could feel of his intent. But the ninja didn't make any motions to defend himself, and Sasuke thought of their strength levels.
"It'll take a while for me to digest so you'll have to be patient."
He took a cautious step back.
"Though it seems you'll have nothing to worry about. You should hope that you are not who you say you are."
"And why is that?"
Zetsu hummed in thought. "Do you really think we need Orochimaru's skills? Pain-sama is uninterested in what science has to offer, much less from someone who's deserted."
"Konan responded to my connections."
"You could say they were curious. Pain is more than powerful enough to have the luxury of exploring his curiosity with infiltrators... and he is not afraid of you, whether you are Orochimaru or not."
That gave Sasuke pause.
"He is merciful, however, and willing to hear of your reasons first."
…
A/N: filler chapter is filler. I know nothing of Konan & Zetsu (never seen the Pain Arc) so I'm going off of the little I know. I apologize if OOC.
