They were sitting in the near darkness of the entrance, resting on a small fountain near the center of the room. The water listed softly, but Sasuke sat perfectly still and in perfect silence. It wasn't hard, or even worth any effort at all, really. He was, after all, a shinobi; masters of stealth and the silent kill. Well, some of the time any way. That was an amusing thought actually. How many ninja had abandoned the original concept of a ninja for flashy shock techniques. Then again, such shock and awe tactics were hardly ineffective and it wasn't as thought Sasuke wasn't quite proficient at them as well. But many ninja had shunned stealth and finesse all together.

That was one of the reasons Orochimaru was an acceptable sensei, even as much as Sasuke loathed to call him such. However, there was no denying his skill in any field of the shinobi arts. The sannin took stealth and secrecy very seriously, as the attack on Konoha had demonstrated, but he also had the flash and skill to fight in direct combat. He was also an egotistical sadistic sociopath, but Sasuke was able to look past that for the sake of his goals. Orochimaru was almost pathetically easy to manipulate too. The man, if he could still be called such a thing, was so used to praise and near religious fawning from his subordinates that the concept of Sasuke blatantly lying to him seemed to escape him.

It made things much easier for the Uchiha, though, and gave him a good example of what not to do. For such a dark and secretive man, Orochimaru gave trust far to easily. Sasuke would not be so foolish. There was one person who had his trust, and that was because it had been proven to him in the most extreme of ways. But, as said, it was one more thing he learned from the sannin; the list of things left to teach was becoming quiet short now.

Sasuke heard his partner cough slightly. That was uncommon; Sakura had becoming highly adept at stealth, a necessity that he had drilled into her. Even small moments like this were exercises in it. That she slipped up was surprising to him, because she had done quite well for herself. But, then again, he had to admit that it was likely his fault, given how he woke her. It had come rather naturally, the old snark and pomp. It was an old set of clothes, well worn and comfortable to slip into. A remnant of a life he'd left behind. Or had intended to, at least. Sakura had complicated that.

She seemed to notice her slip up and shrink back into herself. She sat a few feet away from him, quickly becoming lost in her own thoughts once more. Sasuke had shunted so much out of his mind after his unexpected mental admission the previous night. There was no time to consider what it meant, or how it would affect things. To ponder it would be to let it have that greater affect, and distract him. There was no time for that, not when he was nearing the limits of what he could learn from the snake. And then he would discard him, just like he'd discarded Konoha. Orochimaru's usefulness would be spent.

Sasuke would have to kill him too. His obsession with the sharingan was insulting. The Uchiha realized with some degree of disgust that, given how fast Orochimaru's body was degrading, it likely wouldn't even be a decent fight. Not that Sasuke cared much, of course. Combat was a means to an end, not something he indulged for the sake of base gratification. No, he had something else to satisfy that, should he need it. He caught himself grinning, and moved quickly to stifle the various thoughts about a certain pink-haired kunochi that ran through his mind. Sasuke was surprised. Where had that come from?

"You seem distracted, Sasuke-kun." a sickly smooth voice said, causing Sasuke to scowl even more. He'd let his guard down like a fool.

"Hard to stay focused when my supposed teacher goes off when he's supposed to be training me." he replied quickly, pleased with the snappy comeback. Kabuto seemed displeased, and Sasuke noticed that he was muttering something about disrespect under his breath. And then Sasuke noticed the third member of the small group, a strange and extremely pale boy with what appeared to be a short dagger stored across his back.

"Another young boy? Orochimaru, your weird tastes are your own, but indulge them on your own time, wouldn't you?" he said, words dripping with snark. Sakura giggled slightly, wondering where the old Sasuke had come from again. Sasuke didn't realize that her reaction was making him smile even more.

Orochimaru did, and while he was smiling that same disgusting smile on the outside, inside he was seething. The boy, however, seemed to have ignored the unsavory implications Sasuke made and was smiling far to nicely to be believed.

"I'm Sai. You must be Sasuke Uchiha. Naruto has told me quite a lot about you." the pale boy said. Sasuke noted a sharp intake of breath from his pink-haired partner as that certain knucklehead was mentioned. "But, I've a feeling I'd get along better with yo-"

He was cut off very suddenly, beads of sweat forming on his brow. His eyes shot open, fake smile momentarily fading into an expression as close to approaching abject horror as Sai's indoctrinated mind could muster. He took a single step back as his heart began to pound in his chest. It as alien to him, this extreme terror. He wanted to run, and it took all the willpower he could muster to prevent it.

"Sakura." Sasuke hissed, looking back very so slightly. The pink-haired woman was glaring at Sai with more killing intent than Sasuke had ever felt from her. It washed over him as well, though he could only imagine what the person it was targeting must have felt. It was abnormal, simply and clearly wrong for her to have that much hate.

His words seemed to cut through her haze, and the killing pressure let up in an instant. She shrunk back, stammering something of an apology.

"Enough." Sasuke snapped again, causing her to grow silent. She looked down to the ground. Sasuke simply turned back to Orochimaru, frown evident on his face. "Come, we need to finish perfecting my jutsu. I haven't got time to play around here."

And then he began to walk off. Sakura remained for a brief moment, glancing up at Sai once before falling into step behind the man she'd given up everything for. An alien feeling swept over her, unwanted and unappreciated; there was nothing for her to regret, she told herself. Nothing at all.

"Well, I think Kabuto can find you some place to say, than." Orochimaru said, slowly slithering off after his future host, chuckling in his sick way as he did. "This was entertaining, we'll have to do it again some time, perhaps."

And without anything more he disappeared into the murky darkness.

Author Note: Forgive me for the delay. You know how it is with life. Things come up. In my case, these things were my MEPS physical for joining the military followed closely by Mass Effect 2. Also, the fact that I really wasn't looking forward to writing the next chapter. Not that anything in it I don't really like, but simply didn't grab me, event wise, like other things do. But as soon as I get through it we can begin the Hebi arc. So that will be fun.

So yeah. I promise a full chapter soon, though.