See? Update after update. Yeaaaaah.

Yes, yes. I'll get to Treacherous Heart soon. This story is just kinda speaking to me right now.

And the story unfolds...

Promises Not Made are Promises Never Kept

Chapter Twelve – Rock. Paper. Scissors.

The fight was fast-paced, deadly, and deliberate. Each man moved and shifted just enough to avoid attacks, deflect attacks from the other and to counterattack; no move was left wasted, and every inhale and exhale had purpose. Sasuke and the snake-man moved just enough to dodge each other, and just enough to strike to kill each other. It was ferocious and furious – a tangle of energy and strength that left nothing to chance. They danced around each other in a tight, careful, and simple (yet lethal) form. It vaguely reminded Inaré of two skilled competitors of rock, paper, scissors going against each other.

In order to gain the upper hand in that scenario, you have to think not one or two, but three or four steps ahead of your opponent. But you must think quickly. Because you have a fifty-fifty chance of winning or losing after you both end in a draw ten times. The only way to win is to think ahead just the littlest bit more than your opponent; otherwise your scissors will get crushed by his rock and you lose.

Or in this case, by his creepy grin. This time, it's not 'best two out of three'.

Come on, Sasuke!

Sasuke's expression was eerily calm, his entire body flowing and shifting as if he were boneless, like water as he bent his body forward around Orochimaru's fists and backwards to dodge a blade. He was calculating, thinking of the best way to kill the snake-man, looking for an opening as Orochimaru cackled the entire time, an insane grin on his face.

"You're fantastic, my precious thing!" He cooed as he ducked a swing before delivering one of his own. "I can't believe you really exist! I am going to have so much fun with you!"

But Sasuke refused to be distracted, not saying a word or even noises of battle despite any efforts Orochimaru made to be social. It made Haku nervous, how expressionless Sasuke was. Sure, he knew to some extent how to mask his thoughts during battle, and he was good at it too, but he wasn't perfect. At least not as completely as he was right now.

And though excellent at hand-to-hand combat though he was, under normal circumstances Sasuke would never allow himself to engage in such risky interaction for so long. Tai-jutsu was great, but Chakra was there for a reason!

Maybe he's afraid that if he starts escalating, so will the Sannin. He rationalized. But after a moment he shook his head. Ah, but no. He can handle it. And maximum if he can't, we can. He glanced upwards at the canopy. I wonder if anyone else knows what's going on. Troubled, he looked back to the battle. We should help – we should, but we'd only be getting in the way at this point. When Sasuke's like this…

Biting his lip, he reached over and took Inaré's hand in his. She squeezed his fingers reassuringly.

He'd have no qualms putting a hand through our chests if we were in between him and his opponent. Even accidentally.

"I know it's hard, Inaré," he breathed to her, knowing she was itching to jump in. His hold on her hand tightened to remind her of the danger not only Orochimaru was in, but they were in as well. "But we have to stay back. At least until we know Sasuke can't handle it anymore."

"But by then it might be too late," she whispered back in worry as she watched, unable to take her eyes from the fight. There wasn't even any jumping or leaping or fancy-pants back flipping involved. It was like they were fencing with their fists.

Paper. Scissors. Rock. Scissors. Paper…

Come on, Sasuke. Get the jump on him already.

"Stop playing with him and just finish this, Sasuke…" she muttered beneath her breath.

As if Sasuke heard her, despite how soft the command had been, he suddenly seemed to speed up his pace, and he ducked beneath Orochimaru's arm and threw the other arm to the snake-man's side, creating his own opening.

Lifting up his palms and setting the balls of them together, he pressed his palms into Orochimaru's abdomen and released a massive blast of Chakra directly into the man's torso before he could react, sending him flying towards his snake to land hastily into a crouch, his entire body smoldering.

"Oh… just lovely," the snake-man cooed as he stood, the entire right side of his tunic blasted clean off and the skin beneath blackened. He licked his lips with a long, serpentine tongue. "You're making want you more and more by the minute. Is there any part of you that isn't just so perfect?"

Sasuke stayed silent, flexing the fingers of his right hand over and over again - the only obvious movement about him.

"How did he survive that?" Inaré breathed, gritting her teeth. "No way."

"He is Sannin, Inaré," Sasuke replied monotonously, his eyes still on Orochimaru as he lowered his hand. Even his voice sounded different somehow; deeper. Deader. Completely and totally apathetic in all aspects. Cold. It made Inaré swallow hard and shrink a little closer to Haku. "They don't hand that title out to just anyone. Besides…" the barest hint of a sneer crossed Sasuke's face, and he flexed the fingers of the other hand as it remained by his side. Besides that, no other part of him moved. His body was completely calm, completely in control of itself. It wasn't going to give anything away. "Have you ever tried to kill a snake? You have to chop the head up into a thousand pieces before it finally stops trying to bite you."

Orochimaru merely snickered.

"You sound like you have experience with this sort of thing," he commented with a grin. Sasuke's eyes narrowed, and whatever was left of the previous hint of expression vanished from his face.

"I'm about to have a lot more," he replied simply, unmoving. Orochimaru's grin widened.

"We'll see about that, my little plaything," he cooed. "Although, this new persona of yours is simply fascinating, and I've heard some very interesting rumors about your team." His eyes twinkled. "I can't wait to see if they're true."

Haku's eyes widened.

No. He can't be talking about-

However, Sasuke wasn't shaken.

"You bore me with your chatter," he stated, face blank. "When I kill you, it will simply be out of monotony."

For the first time since their encounter, Orochimaru's eyes narrowed with something akin to anger.

"Watch yourself, boy," he stated, dashing forwards towards Sasuke, who stood there, unmoving. "I am more powerful than you could ever dream–"

Snakes burst from the ground at Sasuke's feet, wrapping themselves around his legs and pinning him to the earth before he could leap away, sinking their fangs into his legs. Pain wrenched across his face, making him grunt.

"No…" he breathed, baring his teeth. "Why can't I get away? Why can't I just poof away-?!"

"Now let's see what makes you so lifelike!" Orochimaru roared as he leaped into the air, diving for the teen. Inaré leaped forward, yelling Sasuke's name, but the mother snake immediately put herself in between, snapping at the two teenagers hungrily.

Desperately, Sasuke threw out wires, wrapping them around tree branches and roots and making a net above him, not to hold something in, but to keep something out-

Orochimaru belly-flopped onto the steel wires, the web creaking beneath his weight with his head in a space between the wires and arms outstretched towards Sasuke, nails sharp and gleaming.

For a moment, it looked like the wires might snap, but they held, and Orochimaru lay suspended a mere couple of feet above the teen's head as Sasuke looked up at him, his expression carefully controlled as they simply stared at each other for a moment. Sasuke began to move, started to think about getting those fucking snakes off from around his legs so he could actually get away from this madman-

But before he could Orochimaru spoke, making Sasuke's eyes go back to him.

"There's a lot you don't know about me, little plaything."

Suddenly Orochimaru's face was right in front of Sasuke's, but his body was still in place as arms still restrained by the net clamped onto him, nails digging into the teen's shoulders.

Orochimaru's mouth opened wide, wide, wide, and fangs sparkled out of the corner of Sasuke's eye.

He was stretching his limbs. As if they were made of Goddamn silly putty.

"AND NOW YOU'RE MINE!"

"SASUKE!"

You got a fifty-fifty chance…

Rock. Paper. Scissors.

You lose.

All calm and persona threw itself off a cliff in terror as Sasuke felt teeth sink into his left shoulder blade, and he let out a scream of agony that shook the birds from their perches and send the rodents into their holes as pain blasted through his system.

This isn't just a bite. He thought in panic, his mind reeling as he realized he was bending over backwards with the momentum of Orochimaru's attack, falling to the ground beneath him as ever muscle in his upper body quivered in suffering. The wires yanked themselves out of the trunks they had been anchored in with the force of the attack, falling around him uselessly. What's happening to me? WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME?!

He let out another shriek as he hit the earth, the impact feeling like he had landed on a thousand needles as he struggled with the bigger male, flailing and writhing beneath him against the pain.

Chakra flowed through his system from the bite as Orochimaru sat like a brick atop him, burying his teeth deeper and deeper into the muscle as fire spread through Sasuke's veins, carrying the pain everywhere it went. Darkness began to creep at the corners of his vision, and he heaved and bucked in protest as he felt the poisonous energy creeping deeper and deeper into his system, towards…

"NO!" He screeched, pushing and pulling and clawing at the form on top of him. "NO! WHAT'RE YOU DOING TO ME? WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME?! INARÉ! HAKU!"

SAVE ME!

He felt himself being pulled up into a sitting position as Orochimaru got up and clamped Sasuke to his torso, both of them on their knees with his teeth still buried in the teen's body as the Genin fought every moment of every second, beating the snake-man with blows that were powerful, but panicked, thus making them useless. That poisonous Chakra sunk down, down, down…

"No!" He begged, clutching and clawing at the Sanin because he knew he couldn't hold himself up anymore even if he wanted to. Fear coursed through his system as he realized where that energy was going. He didn't notice the purple aura he started to take on, the strange indigo markings that started appearing on his skin around Orochimaru's fangs. "No! Stop! Please, don't do that – don't go there, you don't know what you're doing-!"

The Chakra reached the very core of Sasuke's soul.

A tremendous blast of furious, powerful Chakra erupted from Sasuke's being at the foreign intruder, and every fiber of every muscle in Sasuke's body clenched up and he arched backwards and threw his arms back, turning stiff and rigorous in Orochimaru's arms as his mouth seemed to open wider than humanly possible, canines shining in the light-

A mighty, monstrous roar blasted through Sasuke's small human lungs and upwards towards the sky, so powerful it tore branches off trees in the canopy above and so terrifying that the massive snake turned on her metaphorical heels and fled, leaving and Inaré and Haku relatively unharmed. Orochimaru, withdrawing his teeth as he suddenly realized he might've just gone deaf in both ears, let alone just one, began to pull back to see what was going on.

"What the-"

Before he could, Sasuke was in motion, reaching forward and sending the teeth of his very large mouth directly into the crook of Orochimaru's neck, every newly-sharpened tooth biting down with all the strength the boy possessed as blood squirted violently as he grabbed hold of the man's shoulders.

The snake-man howled, partially in surprise and partially in pain as it felt like a massive beast was attempting to tear his throat out (needless to say, he was not expecting that reaction), and in rage the nails of his right hand elongated. With a powerful thrust, he sent all five of them into Sasuke's chest – not so far up as to pierce the heart and immediately kill the boy – but enough to pierce his lungs and rupture his esophagus.

"GET OFF ME!"

Even so, that only weakened the grip Sasuke had on him just enough so that the only way Orochimaru could get away was to give Sasuke what he wanted – a really decent chunk of the snake-man's throat. The result was a nasty ripping sound and a jettison of blood.

When he managed to pull away and put a hand to the rather large hole in his upper torso, he was covered in blood and so was Sasuke. Orochimaru gasped hard, blood dribbling down his chin, as he stared at the boy, who was facing downwards, hair that had fallen loose covering his face.

"I may have…" Orochimaru panted weakly as he lay there on the ground, managing to hold himself up with one hand. "…underestimated you…"

Sasuke's shoulder was black and purple and covered with blood from where Orochimaru had pierced it, the liquid also quickly spreading along the boy's chest from the puncture wounds with the purple aura almost completely dissipated, but as Sasuke – on his hands and knees – raised his eyes to look at the snake-man, something inside them had changed dramatically over the past few seconds, and Orochimaru's own widened.

Those were no longer the quivering, shaking eyes of the prey. They were the steady, unshaken eyes of a predator, and as Sasuke looked up through his bangs at the snake-man – the older man's blood smeared all over his lips and chin and nose and teeth, chunks of Orochimaru's flesh still trapped in between his teeth, with that mouth open and snarling and just aching to take another chunk out of the Sannin the older ninja could see the certain blood lust in those unblinking golden-green eyes-

And then, did he see correctly? At the corners of those stretched lips that bared every blood-drenched tooth? A smile? Even as the boy's skin grew paler and paler the more blood he lost? The chunk of the snake-man's flesh sat half-eaten on the ground beneath Sasuke's shoulders, the bite-marks still clearly visible.

Two can play at that game.

Orochimaru's lips pressing into a fine line, he vanished, only splatters of blood remaining.

Rock. Paper. Scissors.

You lose.

End Chapter Twelve – Rock. Paper. Scissors.

Is Sasuke a badass? Yes. Yes he is.

One of these days I'm going to draw that image to life, and it's going to be awesome.

In the meantime though, review and tell me how much you loved it? :3

Much love!

DDB