Greetings, reader/reviewer units.
So, I have a predicament. Part of the reason it takes me so long to update is because my attention is scattered between oh, nine-ish different stories (which is entirely my fault and I accept that) but here's the thing.
When I devote my attention entirely to one or two stories, I produce chapters much faster than I would otherwise (I'm sure you've noticed with the oh, 5ish new chapters that have come out in the past few weeks? More than the past two years. .). So I'm planning to put the other stories on temp hiatus (I promise, temp. Maybe not for a couple, but for most temp) so I can devote my attention fully to two stories in particular. This one and Treacherous Heart. And maybe when the inspiration strikes me I'll continue the Demon Saga. I want to hear your opinions on this. If there's enough outrage over my decision, I might retract it, but that means the stories taking longer and longer to finish. Once these are more or less complete, I'd move onto the others. But this is what I need to operate more efficiently and get more chapters out for you guys, otherwise I'm just kinda floundering with the weight of the stuff I need to update. Please understand, and enjoy this chapter and the following flashback.
This story is getting good. 3
Promises Not Made are Promises Never Kept
Chapter Eleven – Calm
"Haku!" Sasuke cried, running out of the tree, Inaré and the two creatures closely behind him.
They entered the clearing and looked up, way up to the top branches of the trees, where light struggled to stream through.
"Oh, fucking God," Inaré cursed, Kaoru ready to pounce, snarling, at her side.
From what Sasuke could tell, it was a gigantic cobra, slightly purple in tint and weighing well over four tons. The length of the thing could wrap around one of the massive trees around them and easily crush it beneath its girth.
And in its jaws sat Haku, only his head showing and the rest of his body in the serpent's giant mouth, nestled in between the massive fangs. Wait, what? Why didn't it just eat him-? The creature's big yellow eyes stared down at them from where it sat with the head raised, fans on either side of its head slightly stretched open.
"He's still alive," Inaré breathed in relief. "But why?"
"Something's controlling that thing," Sasuke breathed in icy rage. "Inaré, be on your guard! Someone else is here with us!"
Haku grunted, and barely managed to open his eyes. The snake might not have killed him, but it was certainly doing nothing to make living any easier as the crushing weight of its jaw pressed down on him.
"Ah…" he breathed weakly. "Mo… Moira!"
At his breathless call for help, his two companions heard a violent shriek from above their heads, and the tiny bird leaped from the tree branch it had been sitting on and dove downwards towards the ground, pulling up just in time and streaking towards the snake in an explosion of Chakra, going so fast that an eruption of sound in the form of a circle – like a shield – burst forth from his tiny body as he struck the snake in an upward arc, slicing it open from belly to throat. Sasuke and Inaré stood there, stunned for a second as purplish-black blood spurted violently from the enormous arteries to the ground in front of them, and a lifeless jaw fell open as the creature's entire body sagged.
"Wow, I didn't know Moira could break the sound barrier," Sasuke commented mildly. Inaré blinked.
"Yeah, I didn't either," she replied, breathless. "He's getting better."
The jaw relaxed enough that Haku slipped from the monster's grasp, and Sasuke leaped forward and jumped up to catch his teammate before he hit the ground, laying him safely on the forest floor.
"Ewe…" Sasuke muttered, setting Haku down on a tree root opposite the dead snake. "You're covered in snake spit."
Haku coughed and opened his eyes.
"My apologies," he stated. "I was careless."
"You're okay," Sasuke assured him warmly as Haku managed to stand up. "Speak of the devil, right? What a fucking monster."
"Um… Sasuke?" Inaré called to him from where she stood still looking at the snake. "It's about to get a lot worse."
Both Haku and Sasuke looked over at the monstrosity to see it shivering and shaking, the dead body quivering though the earth stayed still. Then, before their eyes, the split muscles and tendons and supports pulled themselves back together, sewing themselves up from the ground up, and the back of the snake's head welded itself back together, those eyes snapping open and gleaming with life once again as the creature became whole once more.
The newly-living snake seemed to grin at them. Sasuke couldn't breathe for a moment.
"Wow, I really hope that Anko bitch realizes this isn't funny."
"And worse yet, Moira is going to be useless until tomorrow," Haku commented in distress. Sasuke scowled, looking at him.
"Really?" He asked incredulously. "We're about to get eaten by a snake that apparently has nine lives, and you're concerned about the bird? The one that can get up and fly away?"
"Well, if that's true, then it has eight now," Inaré stated as the serpent swayed dangerously from side to side, waiting for them to move as those eyes endlessly watched them. Silently, she slowly reached over her shoulder and pulled out the sword that had been sheathed across her back, a wickedly thick thing with a curved blade and hooked end. "Let's find out how many it's ready to waste today."
"I get a terrible feeling about this," Haku breathed, reaching into his sleeves, where his needles were stored. "But I must agree. Nothing covers me in its slimy mucous secretions and gets away with it."
"Ewe, Haku," Sasuke stated simply as he readied himself as well, taking a kunai from his belt and his eyes never leaving the snake. "Dagina and Kaoru will be used as distractions. The instant we don't have the situation under control, they bail and catch up with us later. Agreed?"
"Yes," Inaré responded. "We've invested way too much in those animals to just let them get eaten."
"We should stop talking," Haku commented blankly. "Let's go."
As one, they charged, Inaré on the right, Haku on the left and Sasuke in the center.
And then, as they did so, all hell broke loose.
Snakes, smaller ones, but still as long as Sasuke was tall, leaped out of the wood work, engaging Inaré, Haku, and the two animals simultaneously. The big one, however, went for Sasuke, lashing out and spreading its jaws wide.
Sasuke jumped up (with the massive weight of the creature smashing into the earth), landing on top of the snake's dorsal side and planning to wrap the snake up in some steel wire to hopefully contain it long enough for them to get away, but that plan crashed to a halt as Dagina howled in agony. His eyes snapped to his animal to see her assaulted by three smaller snakes. Two of them had their fangs already in her fur (hopefully it was too thick for them to get a good grip) and another was trying to wrap itself around her throat as she madly bucked and clawed and howled.
"NO!" Sasuke yelled, leaping off the mother snake and lashing out with his kunai, slicing apart the tinier creatures easily enough. "GO!" He shouted to his animal. "Go, NOW!"
Lifting her half-way off the ground, he all but threw her into the trees, and she managed to land on all fours and limp away to the shadows.
We need to keep them distracted. Sasuke thought. There's no way these snakes want just the animals. Creatures that are so infused with Chakra would kill normal predators. His eyes narrowed as he looked at the big snake, and he could hear Inaré free Kaoru and usher her to safety as well. But then again, these aren't just regular killers, are they?
As far as he could tell, the smaller serpents weren't piecing themselves back together. A good thing, as far as he was concerned.
But we still need to deal with the mother…
What else to call the fucking bitch that just refused to die?
Stringing steel wire to some kunai and running to the massive snake as he did so, he spun the kunai and threw one, aiming above the snake as he dashed to the monster's opposite side. The snake hissed, its purple and yellow colored fan unfurling to its full extent as it snapped at him again. He jumped, dodging the blow, and flung other kunai from his fingers, creating a spider web of wire after a series of baiting and dodging the creature.
Almost snarling at him, the mother tried to rise up to her full height, only to realize the metal wiring at her back kept her boxed in, low to the ground with trees both in front of her and to her back. She hissed violently as she realized that she was trapped, her choices either to stay close to the earth or potentially get sliced up by the wires.
Smirking at his work, Sasuke jumped up and landed solidly at the center of her fan as she struggled against the steel, the wiring now not just wrapped around kunai, but around trees.
Sasuke eyes widened as he looked down at the snake. He hadn't seen it before, but he saw it now. Markings, insignias, runes – all a bright purple in color – drawn in patterns on the creature's scales.
I get it now. He thought, his face going cold. This snake. Somebody summoned it. It has a pact with someone. It's someone's pet. Someone's partner.
Like Dagina.
At the thought, he snarled.
No. This monster is nothing like Dagina.
"INARÉ!" He roared, raising his hand high. "SWORD!"
Without question, she took her weapon by the blade and threw it up to him, her companion catching it by the hilt. Fire burning in his eyes, he raised the sword high up over his head, right in the center of the runes.
"Summoned beast or not, I'll kill you for what you did to her," he swore viciously as he sent the sword plunging down. "DIE!"
Before he could connect, metal sung a shrill song as it cut through the air, and the metal wires binding the snake snapped and she immediately reared up mightily with a serpentine roar, bucking him neatly off and sending the sword sailing out of his hand to sink itself into the ground in the center of the clearing.
He spun wildly in the air, managing to land hard on his feet, but the momentum was too much and he skid forward towards the edge of the clearing to flop onto his stomach by the brush, his heels smarting and the wind knocked out of him.
What the fuck? He cursed silently as he shakily pushed himself up off the ground, gasping.
"Those metal wires didn't just snap by themselves…" he breathed to himself, struggling to breathe. Pain in his ribcage told him he had cracked a rib or two, if not broken them completely. He grit his teeth against it. "Fucking bitch… that sound before…" his eyes narrowed and rage flared behind them. "Somebody cut the ropes."
The snake's owner.
At those words, he was acutely aware of someone watching him, and the hairs stood up on the back of his neck as he looked around before focusing his attention on the darkness of the bushes in front of him. His heart, his mind, his skin – every single instinct in his body screamed at him to run and hide and close the gates (oh God please save us-!) against the monster looming at the edge of the horizon, but before he could obey he saw sharp, yellow almond eyes gazing at him from the darkness, almost glowing in their power. Every muscle in Sasuke's body went rigid and his breath caught sharply in his throat.
Those are the eyes of a snake.
"My preciousssss thing…"
But they sat in the face of a man.
Sasuke felt the color drain from his face; he couldn't breathe as long, lithe fingers with sharp green nails reached for him from the darkness (death itself). He was caught, terrified, mesmerized, in those wicked eyes, and cold sweat trickled down his face as suddenly the entire world seemed to stop existing except for those fingers, those eyes.
It was as if he had been sucked into the stuff of nightmares. Like a creature of prey, his heart quivered in terror beneath that gaze.
Those fingers, cold as death, touched his face ever so gently.
"At lasssst, I've found you."
That chilled touch snapped Sasuke out of it, and he felt every fiber in his body pour all of its energy into getting the fuck away-!
He launched himself backwards, almost flying across the floor of the clearing as he struggled to scream but found that he couldn't. His throat frozen with fear, he could only run away silently screaming for help.
OhGodohGodohGodohGodohGod-!
But that snake man followed him, and as he hit the ground and rolled, lifting himself onto his feet, the man slammed into him, sending them both rolling across the ground again and Sasuke found himself fighting for his life as a slippery devil with pale skin, long black hair, and lithe, powerful body fought for purchase on top of him, hissing and cooing excitedly with long snake tongue whistling in and out of slender, pointed teeth.
It was like fighting with the dead, angry body of a colossus – how cold and strong this monster was. Blindly, he fought back, his panicked defense easily deflected and pushed aside, making him panic even more.
Didn't Inaré and Haku see what was happening? Didn't they see that he needed help? He couldn't fight this force of nature, this abomination. This incarnation of dread. Oh God, he was so scared-
You will not quiver like some child.
That simple command had every single hair on his body settling back down to the skin as the beast within him arose and the goose bumps faded, and when he opened his eyes again they were calm and composed, no fear left as he stared into the eyes of the beast. There was a pause as they simply stared at each other. No fear left.
Only anger remained.
The snake man found his prey was much stronger than any spell of horror he had weaved as he found himself being launched through the air towards the mother snake, Sasuke rolling off his back and rising onto his feet, fists clenched and face straight.
Now that his vision and mind were both clear, Sasuke could see the snake man in front of him for just that: a man of flesh and bone. He had a triangular jaw, and a nose that was almost more for show than use, the two slits beneath it showing his true nature.
Wow. Just like a snake.
He laughed as he pushed himself into a stand, peering through his oily hair at Sasuke.
"Very good," he cooed in compliment, one corner of his lips twitching upwards in a smile. "For an instant you almost had me worried that I had made a poor choice. But I knew I couldn't have – not when it came to you."
Sasuke's eye twitched as he surveyed the man, something about him making a memory from very long ago itch uncomfortably.
"Right," he stated as it came to him, almost as if it were summoned. "I know you. You're one of the three legendary ninjas of Konoha. One of the Sannin." He raised an eyebrow at the man. "One of you is a pervert, which you are decidedly so. The other is a female, which you don't seem to be, and the third is a creep. Which you also fit the description. But the pervert also has big hair, and if you ask me you could definitely stand to use some volumizing shampoo. So." He raised an eyebrow at the man, and he could feel his heart rate slowing down below angrily dangerous levels. Now the snake man was only a man, and with his mortality rate just as high. "Looks like you're the perverted creep, then. The snake-master, Orochimaru. If memory serves, aren't you a wanted criminal? What the fuck are you doing in the village? And at a Chunin Exam no less? Don't you have better things to do?"
By this time, Inaré and Haku had finished off their opponents and now they stood, watching the interaction as the giant snake lingered behind her master, awaiting orders. Inaré itched to leap in and tussle with the new opponent, but Haku eyed Sasuke in worry.
His aura… it's changed. This can't be good.
Sasuke was usually calm, this was true. But this was a particular type of calm that make Haku instantaneously go on edge. A radiating, deceptive calm that rippled outwards – something that was both powerful and controlled.
The calm before the storm. The breath before the strike. The pause before the kill.
Sasuke was more dangerous calm than he ever was angry.
So much for it not happening again.
The man smiled.
"Impressive extent of knowledge, for someone who doesn't live in Konoha," he replied serenely. "I knew I chose well. But yes, you are correct."
"I read a lot of books," Sasuke replied simply with a blank stare, even though a part of him deep inside rippled with unease. "And besides, when you're bad enough to get on the blacklist of one nation, odds are you're dick enough to get on the blacklist of the others. I've known about the Sannin ever since I knew what a ninja was. And trust me, there's a lot of red ink when your name is concerned."
"I'm flattered," Orochimaru cooed, taking a dramatic bow. "I do try to make a name for myself. But concerning myself with the affairs of state is so… petty. I have much better things to amuse myself with."
He fluttered his eyelashes at the boy, but the only reaction he got out of Sasuke was a raised eyebrow.
"I don't care about what you have to entertain yourself with," he stated plainly, and Haku could feel the thunder within Sasuke's being roll and shift in anticipation. He could almost see the fire rolling beneath the other's skin, itching to find an opening to escape in a burst of flame and hiss of steam. "We have an exam to complete. Leave. And take your giant pet with you before I skin it alive."
Orochimaru glanced over his shoulder at the monstrous serpent behind him and chuckled.
"Ah, I don't believe so," he responded with a crooked smile. "You see, you don't know it yet, but you're mine." His smile widened into a grin. "And like it or not, I'm going to have you."
Sasuke's eyes sharpened dangerously.
"Dream on," he snarled.
And with that, Orochimaru launched himself at Sasuke again, and the fight began anew.
End Chapter Eleven – Calm
So yes, please leave me a review (and an opinion, if you have one) telling me what you thought.
Enjoy the flashback after this!
Much love!
DDB
