Orochimaru stole through the silent hallways of Oto, hoping no one found him. He just wanted to be alone right now; alone to nurse his wounds and cradle his broken soul in his hands, wondering where it had all gone. He still wore the black kimono he had on earlier; he hadn't changed. Nor let down his hair, for that matter. His silken, ebony locks were still pulled back into a high ponytail, and it streamed out behind him as he ran. Orochimaru's golden eyes flickered back and forth, running over the stone walls dripping with water and wooden doors creaking at the touch. Orochimaru inhaled slowly, mindful of every breath. This was real; too real. What was different about this that he hadn't noticed before?

"Boo."

Orochimaru almost screamed, but he somehow refrained himself. He spun around, kunai clutched in his grasp, and he turned, meeting-

Burning Sharingan.

Now Orochimaru did scream, and he fell back in shock. The figure over him laughed maniacally, stepping towards him and backing him into the wall. Orochimaru drew his legs up to his body; arms flattened against the wall on either side of him. The Uchiha in front of him reached out, brushing hair away from his face.

"What has my brother done to you?"

Orochimaru suddenly realized he was looking at Sasuke and felt an enormous weight lift from his shoulders. "Unspeakable things," he murmured, sitting forward a bit. His breath came in short, panting gasps, and his entire body shook. "Sasuke-kun, you know very well not to sneak up on me like that. Had I moved quicker, I would have taken your head off."

Sasuke backed up a bit, giving Orochimaru room to move. "Yeah, uh-huh. You looked so scared it wasn't even funny. Honestly, Orochimaru, what did he do to you? Is there really that much of a difference between you?"

Orochimaru nodded and slowly stood up, one hand against the wall. "There is, Sasuke. And he gets stronger every day. I can't help but feel we're really fighting a losing battle." Orochimaru turned and took a deep breath, then started to walk away. He made it to the bend in the passageway before he turned and said, "And by the way, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke had been going in the opposite direction; now he, too, turned and acknowledged Orochimaru.

"I am not blind to the fact that you still neglect to use honorifics after my name. I advise you to do so."

"Or what?" Sasuke snorted. "You'll take my head off?"

"You know very well that I can, Sasuke, and given that you seem to be a trigger for my post traumatic stress, I advise you to watch yourself around me. Or Kabuto…"

Orochimaru laughed. "He's getting very overprotective of me, and he didn't take anything to begin with. So, yes, Sasuke-kun, I'd watch it if I were you."

Sasuke sighed. "Geezer."

Orochimaru spun around, glaring at the boy. "Say that again," he snarled, pacing back towards Sasuke. "Say it! I dare you."

"Oh, you do, do you?" Sasuke sneered. "Fine. Geezer!"

"I warned you, Sasuke," Orochimaru growled, "And now you're going to pay for three years of insolence!"

Both had kunai out as they charged, but only Sasuke managed to get a glancing blow. The knife dragged across Orochimaru's forearm: his left. Orochimaru somehow buried his kunai in Sasuke's rope-belt, clearly aiming for the Uchiha's ribs. He fell underneath Sasuke's arm after his strike had gone through, and fell to the stone floor, clutching at the wound Sasuke had made. His face paled considerably, and he gasped in his sudden pain. Sasuke spun around, expecting another attack.

Instead, he found Orochimaru on the floor, writhing in pain.

"Relax, I didn't exactly take it off," Sasuke said coldly. "So unless-hey, that's a nasty bruise…almost looks like the Uchiha crest-"

"Shut up, you moron!" Orochimaru gasped. "Get Kabuto!"

Sasuke ignored Orochimaru, instead kneeling beside him and picking up Orochimaru's arm. Purple-red blood seeped from Orochimaru's arm where his nails had dug into his skin, and black liquid streamed from the mark on Orochimaru's forearm.

"Hey, that's-!" Sasuke's eyes widened. "I know what this is!" he exclaimed. "But I can't do anything about it. It requires an advanced Mangekyou, and Itachi must have been close to dead for a few days after he did this! I can't believe he was able to do it to begin with, but seriously!"

"So what is it?" Orochimaru asked, fighting against Sasuke's hold on both of his wrists.

"It's kind of like a curse mark; in the aspect that it's used to control others. It returns no power, but it cannot be used for torture. Basically, Itachi marked you as his and establishes that by controlling you with this. Luckily, it doesn't look like he made it very far into the jutsu, so you have most of your self-control left. That's probably why you freaked out earlier; you're automatically associating the pain of this with Itachi…he did it through a dream! Man, you're really screwed if that's how he-"

"Get Kabuto!"

"Kabuto can't do anything!"

"Yes I can."

Kabuto appeared next to Sasuke, holding a needle in one hand and kneeling next to Orochimaru. "Just hold him still while I inject this…" Kabuto slid the needle smoothly under Orochimaru's skin, and the sannin's motions slowed. Eventually, he was lying on his side, panting, pupils dilated and breath harsh and loud. Kabuto picked up Orochimaru and started running, Sasuke close behind them both.

"What are you doing?" the Uchiha hissed, keeping pace with Kabuto easily.

"Saving his life!" the medic replied.

"How?"

"There's only so much I can do, but from the looks of it, Itachi's got him good. I need to reverse this before Orochimaru-sama goes under further!"

Sasuke shook his head. "Quite the opposite; Itachi has minimal control over Orochimaru. But with every second that control grows stronger, until Itachi may just take over Orochimaru completely and force him to be his slave for all and eternity."

Kabuto's eyes were hard and hot as burning coals, and he seemed unwilling to let it go down like this. "I'm not letting that happen," he snarled, "He's not going down like that!"

Sasuke glared at Kabuto. "You've got no choice," he said. "The only way to get him back is to kill Itachi!"

Kabuto's eyes held a dangerous spark.

"Then we will."

Sasuke sighed. "But can we?" he asked slowly. "Really, Itachi is strong…look what he did to Orochimaru! Even at such a cost to himself, seriously!"

Kabuto set a hand on Orochimaru's forehead, burning with healing chakra. "We don't have a choice," he murmured. "I can't let something like that happen to Orochimaru-sama. We're just going to have to go for it."

Sasuke sighed again and walked out without another word.

OOOOOOOOO

Sasuke sat on his bed, fingering a carved kunai with an absent look on his face. The Uchiha fan was engraved on the hilt, and Itachi's name was carved beneath that. Sasuke had found it one day in the former Uchiha complex and decided to keep it. He may as well put Itachi's blood on it as well…

Sasuke was startled by a knock on his door.

"It's open," he said, returning his attention to the kunai. The door opened, and Sasuke spared Kabuto a glance as he walked in and sat down next to him.

"What?"

"I came to ask you about this jutsu," Kabuto said quietly. "Obviously you know more about it than any of us, and maybe even more than you're letting on. Want to share your wisdom?"

Sasuke shook his head. "Not really," he mumbled, and slid the kunai into his pouch. He would put it away later, but for now it could stay out of Kabuto's sight. "You know…I never really cared about Orochimaru…until now…I always thought of him as the real loser, because one day, once he got me all trained up and perfect and everything, I was going to turn on him and show him the error of that. But now…now, it just seems so...so pointless-"

"You saw that I loved him, and you cared about me."

Sasuke's head went down. "As a brother," he said. "You're like the brother I never had, you know…?"

Kabuto nodded. "And to me, Orochimaru-sama is the lover I never had," he said quietly. "I've always isolated myself from people, if not simply because I didn't want anything to do with anything. Orochimaru-sama pulled me out of my little pity-party and gave me a wake-up slap, and really, I admired him to be able to do that…he managed to hurt me enough that I woke up, and yet he was still a father figure to me. I hadn't lost any respect for him at all. Quite the opposite, in fact. And we just grew closer ever since."

Sasuke almost smiled. "Orochimaru's okay, once you get to know him. He's kind of like the 'wtf?!' surprise godfather…he doesn't know, and you don't either, until someone slips up and spills. He doesn't want to deal with you at first, but slowly, you grow on each other."

Kabuto smiled and nodded. "I can definitely see him like that…but I'm not really sure how he could ever be named as caretaker for anyone."

Sasuke shrugged. "Well? You said you came here for a reason?"

Kabuto nodded again. "I wanted to ask you what you knew about Itachi's jutsu," he repeated, "And what can be done about it."

"Nothing," Sasuke replied flatly. "Nothing except kill Itachi. Or grovel at his feet to remove it."

Kabuto sighed. "I was afraid of that. Well, I'm not much of one to grovel, so I'll go with kill. It'll certainly be harder, but at least the results are guaranteed. I mean, think about what would happen if we handed Orochimaru over to Itachi thinking he was going to be released, but Itachi used the time to take over Orochimaru completely."

Sasuke said nothing, but Kabuto knew he had been heard. He could see the thoughts swirling in Sasuke's mind, and the many retorts biting at his tongue. But somehow, they all remained silent and kept behind his lips. Orochimaru was an asset to both of them-for different reasons, but neither wanted him to go.

"Well," Sasuke finally said, "If you're planning on killing Itachi, then I'm coming to!"

OOOOOOOOOO

Itachi stole through the stone hallways, smirking to himself. Victory at last! It had taken him so long just to get in, and even longer to find what he was looking for. He knew it would be difficult from the start, but really!

Itachi crept silently towards the doorway he had been shooting from to begin with and reached out, taking the carved-snake handles in his hands and pulling open the doors. He only opened them a crack, though-just enough for him to sneak through and close the doors silently behind him. His Sharingan-red eyes flickered around the room, searching for what he had come solely for tonight. He would accept not tricks; no jutsus; no screw-ups. And certainly no interference. He had to be swift and precise; cautious, but not too cautious. Itachi finally spotted him at the far end of the room, in a simple kimono with his hair tied back, leaning over a desk to read something. Itachi could see him straightening and moved. Now-!

One of Itachi's hands found Orochimaru's mouth, and the other found one wrist. Orochimaru gasped around Itachi's hand and twisted against his hold, clearly not recognizing who he was fighting. Itachi yanked on Orochimaru's hand until he could reach the other wrist, grabbing it and using two fingers to throw some trap wire around Orochimaru's wrists. He yanked it tight and tied it with one hand, then leaned over and pushed Orochimaru into the desk to hold him a bit more steady.

"Guess who."

A/N: Bleh, so much for updates getting better over Christmas break! Well, here it is, and everybody review!!