Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto! Only the parts that I'm adapting into the original story line.
Fated Encounter
CHAPTER 16
Sakura's nervousness was almost all consuming. She was pacing in the room restlessly chewing on her bottom lip and almost ripping her hair off.
Sasuke was calm compared to her. He was slowly sharpening his kusanagi while sitting on the bed. The room was dimly lit with a few candles here and there giving some light, but as Sakura went from one end of the room to another, you couldn't see her properly.
It was easy for Sasuke to completely ignore the bad vibes waving off from Sakura, even though she constantly asked him of if he was sure.
Now was their time to move and finally strike Orochimaru down. They needed to get moving as fast as possible after that, but not before he visited someone on the lower levels of the hideout. He needed to try and get Suigetsu, the guy in the tank, to join their ranks.
Creating a small team seemed to be the best option from this moment on so that finding Itachi would become much easier. Also, the Akatsuki would be another obstacle in their way of getting to Itachi.
After, hopefully, collecting the water user they would move to another hideout and collect Karin. She was going to be the most problematic of all of them since she was loyal to Orochimaru. She admired him and it would be very difficult to get her on board. Of course, if she didn't want to join them Sakura's abilities were enough to cover some of Karin's abilities.
Karin's unusual ability to sense chakras would be irreplaceable especially when it came to finding Itachi. She could easily sense any threat coming from miles away and that would help their journey.
After Karin, they would travel to North where Jūgo, the original Cursed Seal owner. He was the one who was experimented on to create the cursed seal that now adorned Sasuke's neck.
But before any of this, Sasuke needed to get rid of Orochimaru. In just a few more minutes, he would move and execute his plan of killing the Snake Sannin. Orochimaru would be in his room, on his bed and Kabuto wouldn't be anywhere near.
The grey-haired man would be down in one of the labs, very likely.
Finally, Sasuke got off the bed and Sakura stopped her pacing. Her eyes were wide as she looked up at him.
"Y-you're really going to do this?" She stuttered and bit once again down on her lower lip.
"Yes." Sasuke sighed for the nth time. "Stay here. I'll come and pick you up. Then we leave."
She nodded her head quickly and watched him leave the room.
Leaving the hideout and the safety of Orochimaru's place was a risk for Sakura. She was a target that the Konoha's Elders wanted to rid of as soon as possible. Leaving Orochimaru behind would make them even a bigger target especially if Sasuke killed the man.
Sasuke would be ranked a rouge from there on out.
As Sasuke walked closer to Orochimaru's room he could feel Kabuto's presence leaving further away from the room. It was his time to act now.
Standing in front of the door, his fingers tingles with electricity and with a quick move of his right arm a spear like current erupted from his hand and pierced through the door. A groan echoed from the room that came from Orochimaru.
"W-whose there?" Came Orochimaru's raspy question.
With his left holding his kusanagi, Sasuke broke the door to pieces.
Orochimaru looked eerily calm as he took in Sasuke, "I should have known." His voice sounded even more strained than usual even with the spear piercing through both of his arms.
"You're useless to me now." Sasuke fired back knowing very well that even if Orochimaru looked the epitome of calm, he wouldn't go down without a fight. He needed to use more power than normally he would, and soon the cursed mark started to spread all over the left side of his body.
Orochimaru's eyes were racking all over the blue electricity that was coming from Sasuke's hand with interest. It wasn't a jutsu he had seen Sasuke use at all.
Unfortunately for Sasuke, the spear had its limits, but as he took a step forward it sunk deeper through Orochimaru's arms that were blocking it hitting him completely. Quickly the Sannin moved his arms to the side shifting Sasuke's jutsu from his body.
"You're weaker than me, Orochimaru. There's no need for me to give you my body anymore." Sasuke continued.
"A child using pig words." The Snake man spat with a glare.
"If I wasn't a child, you would have never gotten me." Sasuke almost chuckled. He was a mere child back in Konoha. He didn't know anything about the world or what to do, but this time it was different.
"Itachi must have been too strong for you to pick him, and that's why you chose me." He stated and only got silence. All the gears in Orochimaru's mind were twisting and turning. He was thinking of ways to escape or even change the odds.
"One of the three great Sannins of Konoha. Just a genius among others, but when compared to an Uchiha, you're nothing more than an average person." Sasuke mocked and knew very well that his words were making their job at riling Orochimaru up. On the other hand, his words were correct. Orochimaru could never become as great as an Uchiha. He could never acquire the abilities the Uchiha clan holds.
"You're just a fool. I don't like the way you work. I don't like your ideals." Sakura's battered body flashed in Sasuke's eyes. She was almost crippled by the experimentation done to her if it wasn't for the will that was inside her. "You play with other people's lives for plain selfishness."
"You make me sick." Sasuke spat and made his move. Jumping on the bed with kusanagi hoisted up wards ready to strike. As the blade moved down towards the Snake Sannin, his mouth opened and something jumped out of the body. Alerted, Sasuke glanced over his shoulder, "A white scaled giant snake." he murmured. Orochimaru's body was created from smaller snakes that were all over his body.
"Give me your body!" Orochimaru finally yelled and moved to strike Sasuke. His wide jaw open with three rows of teeth on his lower jaw. As he attacked, Sasuke jumped in the air to get away from the strike, but two snakes erupted from Orochimaru's body and lunged for him. With a swung of kusanagi both snakes were decapitated.
Easily, Sasuke landed on the floor. Orochimaru looked down right furious as he hissed at Sasuke.
Another set of the smaller snakes attacked. Sasuke had to make this quick. Kabuto could return any moment.
Deciding to use his full power with the cursed mark, Sasuke quickly stripped his shirt off and let the mark fully cover his body.
This was going to be easy.
The snakes wrapped around his body, squeezing tightly and forcing all air out of his lungs. Sasuke gritted his teeth and used a burst of lightening. Pieces of the snakes flew away from him scattering all over the room.
Sasuke didn't wait a moment to attack. With chidori lighting up his arm he attacked.
In the end, Orochimaru's body laid motionless on the floor. His body was cut in pieces and blood seeped the floor.
Sasuke let the cursed mark disperse from his body.
Suddenly a wave of nausea gripped his body forcing him to crouch down.
"W-what?" Sasuke mumbled against the dizziness.
Orochimaru's body moved up from the floor and laughed. "It seems that the poison has taken affect. The bodily fluids of this snake turn into gas in the air and paralyze the opponent."
"Someone like you, can never win me!" He raged on and lunged at Sasuke again, "Give me your body!"
Blood littered all over the floor when, finally, Sasuke came back to reality. Orochimaru had doubted him entirely. There was no way he was going to win against the Uchiha clan's powers. Sasuke's techniques were on a whole another level compared to Orochimaru's jutsus.
Kabuto finally stepped in to the room. His eyes were taking the destruction caused by the Uchiha.
"Kabuto." Sasuke acknowledged him.
"What happened here?" Kabuto asked with a lot less distress than Sasuke could have imagined. After scouting through the pieces of Orochimaru, Kabuto's eyes landed on Sasuke with uncertainty glowing all over his face, "Which one are you?"
Sasuke could have laughed at the question.
"What do you think?" Sasuke said and activated his sharingan showing the events that had happened inside Orochimaru. The way he had over powered Orochimaru in his own realm, taking control of everything and finally getting rid of his teacher.
Kabuto was struck with fear, "Y-you killed Orochimaru."
"No," Sasuke said while walking out of the room, "I merged with him."
Kabuto's fear flared in the room as he stared at Sasuke's retreating back. He wasn't going to attack Sasuke.
Now that Orochimaru was gone, Sasuke needed to move forward with his plan.
Sakura almost jumped at him when he opened the door for their room, but somehow she only walked towards him to wrap her arms around his body. She was literally trembling against her.
"You made it." She sighed more to herself than anyone else.
"Is he gone?" Sakura asked carefully and looked up at him.
"Yes." Sasuke answered. She didn't need to know that he had taken a part of Orochimaru to himself. It wasn't a great amount of the Snake Sannin, but it still gave him some strength. "He's gone."
Finally, Sasuke pulled away from her, "We have to leave. Now."
Sakura nodded and quickly walked to their bed for her bag. It was filled with notebooks that she managed to make in these few days. It was a struggle to do it and since Sasuke was a way for a moment her focus wasn't ideal.
She followed Sasuke out of the room and they headed down the hallways. Sakura didn't expect Sasuke to stop by one of the labs that had the guy in a tank in it. As Sasuke headed down the steps, Sakura wondered should she even follow him down there. But Sasuke glanced at her over his shoulder and by the look on his eyes she was supposed to follow him.
And just as Sakura thought, Sasuke headed straight for the tank where Suigetsu was.
The room was lit by the eerie glow coming from the dozens of tanks littering around the room. No one was still here and as far as Sakura could remember, nothing had changed since the last time she was here.
"Eh? You again?" The familiar voice asked, but nothing was visible. "I take it that you defeated Orochimaru?"
"Yeah," Sasuke replied. "Now, I'm here to let you out."
Sasuke's movements were quick as he pulled out kusanagi and slashed the blade against the glass tank.
Sakura took a step back to avoid the water, but the more she backed away the more it came closer. Her reflexes kicked in right away and she jumped up in the air with a flip and landed next to Sasuke.
"Aren't you boring, Pinky." Suigetsu chuckled as his body formed from the water that had come closer to Sakura.
His grinning face appeared, "Thank you, Sasuke."
"Suigetsu, come with me." Sasuke said with his leveled tone. He was not bothered at all by the fact that Suigetsu was getting out of the water puddle stark naked. Sakura, on the other hand, averted her gaze immediately.
"Ah! I should have known this." He was already half way up and Sakura felt like turning around completely.
"Is it going to be just us or are you going to get other, too?" Suigetsu asked.
"Two more. Karin from the southern hideout and Jūgo from the northern hideout." Sakura wasn't relatively happy to hear that they were going to get Karin along with them. She would much rather bash the girl's head into a wall then accompany her on any kind of journey.
"Well, your bed-mate there," Suigetsu pointed at Sakura with a grin, "doesn't seem that happy about this."
Sakura flushed at his words and instinctively her hand covered the spot Suigetsu had noticed days ago. She wasn't very fond of people knowing what was going on in her life especially if it involved Sasuke.
Her reaction caused the water user to laugh.
"Aren't you a little shy." He continued to chuckle for a second until his eyes landed back on Sasuke, "Although, I'm not very fond of them either. I really don't think I'll get along with the two of them."
Suigetsu took a step closer to the couple, "Though, I can't help but wonder what you're going to do after you get those two."
"You're talking is pissing me off, Suigetsu." Sasuke almost growled with annoyance. They needed to get a move on. Who knows if Kabuto, for some reason, decided to attack them. That would only cost them time. They had to leave now if they planned on arriving the next village before day break.
"Put some clothes on." The Uchiha said and turned to leave with Sakura closely behind.
Suigetsu laughed at Sasuke's words.
"Talking like you're better than me? Huh?"
Quick steps echoed in the vast room and Sakura reached for a kunai in her bag just as Suigetsu stopped next to Sasuke. His two fingers were pointing at Sasuke's temple and he had a smile on his face.
"Let's make out relationship crystal clear, shall we? You helped me on your own convenience, but I never agreed on coming with you. You're not my leader even if you defeated Orochimaru. You were his pet, so you had the best chance at finishing him off."
Sasuke wasn't moving anything in his body which only fueled Sakura's nervousness. She itched to attack the boy for her thinking of doing anything like this. It was an intense stare-down as neither boy moved at all.
Sakura didn't dare to move because of the calm aura coming from Sasuke. He wasn't worried, so she shouldn't be either. But that didn't mean that her mind was screaming at her to do something.
Suddenly Suigetsu pulled his hand away and Sakura flinched to attack. But as she took in the retreating movements of the boy she put her kunai back into her back.
"I'm just kidding!" Suigetsu laughed again. "But since I'm letting you live, I don't own you anything for rescuing me. Since I'm free, I'll do anything I want to."
"I see." Sasuke said calmly, "How unfortunate." and continued his walked out of the lab.
Sakura glanced over her shoulder at the smirking Suigetsu, who was staring right back at her.
What do you think? Did you like it? We'll be seeing some Suigetsu, Sasuke and Sakura moments in the next chapter, and also the group will go to the southern hideout. That means Karin will be in the next one.
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Leave a review! They make my day and inspire me to write more! :D Feel free to ask questions or anything that bothers you. I'm more than happy to answer. Of course, if your question involves something that will come in the future chapters, then I won't be answering them.
I don't want to spoil this story too much for everyone since we are going along the original story line.
- Jakura