It was a place of consummate wrongness. The entire place felt saturated with it, an utter feeling of alien perversion, a place outside of all that was logical and sound about existence. Rolling masses of undulating flesh; hills composed of muscle, raw and bleeding. It offended Sasuke's very being to behold it. He averted his eyes, looking to the sky, only to find a stinging pain as his eyes rejected the empty void. It was not black, a strange understanding being passed on by the special eyes he bore. It was nothing, the absence of something instead, as if the creator had grown bored of constructing the sky after he'd made his foul iteration of land.
Sasuke then realized that he was covered in it. The fleshy masses surrounded his feet, sloppy sucking noises that offended his ears as much as the rest of this hellish realm offending his eyes. He knew at an instant that struggling was only going to make the process faster. Summoning all his willpower, Sasuke readied himself, allowing the fleshy growths to surge upwards.
They grew quickly even without his struggle, surrounding his legs in short order. By the time they'd reached his upper body, Sasuke noticed that one section of the pulsating flesh was growing upwards as well. He looked back slightly, sound alerting him to similar growths behind him. Other trapped figures, encased almost fully in the fleshy prison, sat as if asleep. There was no spark of will within them, an empty shell or memory of what had long passed.
A foul snickering drew Sasuke's attention back forward. The Uchiha turned to find Orochimaru, humanoid body encased in a similar mound of pink muscle, slowly working his way forward. Half his face, pale and white as he was during life, was revealed, along with a single of his sinuous arms. The White Snake of the Sannin had but one eye uncovered, but it was filled with an unmistakable lust.
"The body fluids of the giant white snake evaporate on contact with the air, becoming a paralytic toxin. It's let me bring you here. Welcome to my realm, Sasuke-kun. This place is a dimension inside of me," Orochimaru spoke, slithering forward as he did.
"I'm not surprised," Sasuke replied, grinning even as the fleshy mass grew up around his arms. The tomoe of his sharingan were still spinning, "It would take someone as disgusting as you to think of a place like this."
Orochimaru simply grinned at the insult, hand jerking slightly as it raised upward, pointing out towards the youngest Uchiha. His vile cackle returned as he edged forward.
"Such insolence even now, Sasuke-kun," he said, wagging a single disapproving finger at Sasuke as he did.
"This is where the final ritual will take place, my Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru continued, long tongue rolling from his mouth as he did. It shook slightly in foul anticipation, dripping with saliva.
"Those eyes," he muttered, "they will be mine!"
Orochimaru surged forward with a horrible squelching noise, the masses of fleshing seeming to tear apart at their rolling seams as he pushed forward. He thrust his arm out, trying to grab at Sasuke's face. The snake was not prepared for what happened next.
It was subtle, at first. The barest hints of sluggishness coursing over the fleshy mass of his form. He seemed not to notice, but it had not escaped Sasuke. He had remained calm through the entire ordeal, preparing to weave a genjutsu that would break this place. But understanding coursed through him as small crystalline flecks began to appear on Orochimaru's body. Sasuke looked down and let out a single chuckle. She truly was remarkable.
It took a short few moments for Orochimaru to realize that something was wrong. His single eye grew in surprise as the sluggishness spread throughout his body, arm becoming stiff and rigid. It was with great surprise that he looked down to find that flecks of crystals had become full growths. Brilliant pink, they jutted out from his body at seemingly random angles, and yet formed interlocking plates as they grew. He pushed himself harder, crystals cracking under the strain but growing back at an even greater pace.
And then, he lost control of his own world.
Crystal spires, almost twice as tall as a man, grew at random locations as far as the eye cold see, even off into the dim distance barely visible even to Sasuke's enhanced vision. They twisted as they grew up from the fleshy mass, each one distinct and unique from any other. From where they grew the land began to shift and change, rolling hills of bleeding muscle transforming into solid planes of rigid, pink crystal. Chaos was becoming order; the crystals were bringing control to this wild dimension.
"What? Impossible! This is my world! Mine!" Orochimaru shouted, jerking against the binding crystals. This time they gave up nothing, holding him tightly to him. This did little to stop his spasmodic jerking and attempts to free himself.
Sasuke said nothing as the crystals began to grow on his own body. They grew more conservatively, directed to care by some unknown force. Or perhaps not so unknown. He saw it clear as day, and marveled at the irony of wild emotion lending order to the land. With a sharp jerk of his own he wrenched his arms free of the crystal growths, and they began to shatter one after the other, collapsing into thousands of microscopic slivers, just as they were intended to do. Sasuke stood tall, staring down an increasingly encased Orochimaru with a grin of pure amusement. Orochimaru was not so happy, clever mind working out just what was happening all the while.
"That girl? That damnable girl! How dare she intrude here? How? I gave her power, she was nothing without me, and she does this? That little bitc-URK."
Amusement had left Sasuke's eyes, replaced with anger. The seal mark on his neck flared, growing out ever so slightly but struggling to drift past his shoulder blade. He moved like lightning, black-hilted chokutou piercing through Orochimaru's exposed throat without a sound.
"I doubt this will kill you, if any of this is truly real, and even if it wasn't. You're good at surviving, if nothing else. Let's make something very clear. You know nothing of strength. Your pride has gotten so large that it has blinded you. You can't even see the truth right in front of your eyes. Perhaps it can be forgiven, as there was a time when I missed it too. You did not give her strength, you revealed it in her." he said, twisting the blade ever so slightly. Foul blood bubbled from the wound.
"I know what you did, and if you were not so prideful you'd have remembered it. That infusion would have killed her if she wasn't strong enough. It would have destroyed her from the inside out. But it didn't. She conquered it, mastered it. The strength was her own, she simply used you to unlock it.
"How does it feel? To be used? Played like a piece in a game? You saw yourself as the player, but you were nothing but a piece, a pawn. To be played by an Uchiha is one thing, it's to be expected, thus is the power of the bearer of these eyes. But I did not even need these eyes against you, because you were played by another. And you'll stay here, forever, used like you tried to use me. I can think of no better end for an inhuman thing like you."
Sasuke jerked the sword back, splashing crimson on the pink crystalline ground. He sheathed his sword in a quick and practiced motion. And then he was gone, leaving a caged snake to thrash vainly at his bindings.
Sasuke felt her arms around him long before he felt anything else, held tightly around his waist. He felt tears next, wet against his back, soaking into the fabric of his loose tunic. Sakura was holding onto him for dear life, refusing to let go for anything. She hadn't even realized what she'd done, a fact that brought an amused smile to the Uchha's face. So full of surprises, Sakura constantly startled him with her growth.
The air was thick and stank of an alien toxin; the fluids of the snake, Sasuke realized. The poison had become inert, but the smell still hung in the air, a foul reminder. Sound returned to him next, two particular ones reaching his keen senses. First was a low sizzle, and Sasuke realized that it was Orochimaru's monstrous body bubbling away. Without his presence to balance it out, the foulness combinations of whatever medicines and concoctions ran through his veins was losing stability.
Sobbing was the second sound, mixed with low pleading. Sasuke found that sound unbearable, and made moves to stop it. He twisted, breaking her hold. Despite herself, Sakura leaped back eyes wide with worry.
"Which one are you?" she asked in a soft voice. Fear crept into her eyes as he turned to face her fully, arms still loose at his side but a grin that could have meant anything on his face. She stood in defense for what seemed like minutes, though it could not have been but seconds. And then he smiled.
"Sakura." Sasuke said, and smiled in a way that only she had seen for so very long. She threw herself at him, holding on even tighter than before, more then certain that it was her Sasuke that still remained.
Yori watched from the trees with barely contained disgust. His stomach was queezy from the vile sounds that escaped the house, screams of unholy pain and terror, snaps and twists that seemed to echo through the cold night air. He felt the Other inside of him struggle at the sounds, enticed by the pain and suffering. Yori pushed back against it, focusing inward to control the spawn, something had become more and more adept with over time. Still, he acknowledged his mistake in making the compact with something he could barely understand. That was why he had joined Akatsuki in the first place.
Neither he nor Katsura were truly alive anymore, a fact that had played to their advantage; Konoha ninja, ANBU of some quality, had been on their tail for some time now, but they were hardly ready to make a move. Or, perhaps more accurately, the leader had not deemed them ready, despite their own objections. They were to remain in the Land of Fire until contacted, a fact that had the junior members somewhat put off. Still, they knew better then to upset Pain.
The former Hoshi-nin looked up from his perch. He had taken refuge in the forest outside of this isolated farming community, close enough to his partner without being too close to said partner's disgusting hunger and the foul things he did to satiate it. Usually Yori didn't mind when he went off to get his fill; everyone had their vices. Katsura was even moderately courteous about it; he used genjutsu to cloak his true form and got a modicum of consent from his victims, even if they might have been less agreeable had they know they'd be left a soulless husk when he was done. But the junior Akatsuki had been hiding for two weeks now, using the fact they were not truly alive to remain utterly off the radar and lose the ANBU team that had been trailing them.
Hidden for that long, Katsura's urges had grown ravenous. As soon as they'd realized that they were in the clear the getsugakure missing-nin had launched himself out into a wild hunt. This was the third such isolated hamlet they'd come upon in two days. Kat-san left drained husks and violated bodies in his wake, not even bothering with the usual genjutsu to make it somewhat less horrible on those he preyed upon. It was monstrous.
Yori remembered that he too was monstrous in his own way, with that strange thing writhing inside of him. He had been a young fool to think that he could control it, but such was youthful hubris. True, it had granted him power, immortality even, but at a cost he hadn't even begun to understand; he was changing. Sometimes he felt like his skin was just a shell, and what writhed beneath had consumed him entirely. He focused himself, feeling the shards of the mysterious 'star' meteor of Hoshigakure that he'd recovered. They were embedded in his body, and feeling them brought his sanity back ever so slightly. He remembered his goal; he would help Akatsuki, help Pain, and in return, Pain would remove this foul thing from his body. He didn't care if he died in the process, he simply didn't want it to consume him.
He wondered what it was Katsura was after; he was long passed being human, just as Yori had left humanity behind. But Katsura, he had embraced this state, thrived on it. Where Yori had made a choice, foolish though it was, Yori's very pride had turned him into his current state. Yori knew little of his partner's origin; Katsura was from the Land of the Moon, he knew, and it's ninja village of Getsugakure no Sato. And, he knew, it was in Konoha, only a few years ago, that Katsura had 'died' for the first time. At a Chuunin exam, no less, not an utterly surprising turn of events. But, he had come back as something else.
Yori spun on his heels. His hands flew through seals of alien origin, crudely imitated by his human fingers. Growths, like an array of massive purple feathers, grew from his back. Whispering strange words, he threw his arm out, letting a purple tentacle of corporeal chakra lash out into the darkness of the night. He heard a squelch as the tentacle impacted with something fleshy, and with a sharp jerk he yanked what he'd caught out from it's hiding place behind a tree.
It was a boy. Perhaps ten or twelve years old, clutching a crude kunai in one hand, looking as though he'd made it himself from an old gardening tool, a farm child's plaything. His hair was sandy blond, skin tanned from work in the family fields, and eyes of subtle green. The tentacle had shot through his lower torso, and blood sizzled around the foul chakra of the tentacle. Yori simply sighed.
"You foolish boy. Now you've gone and got yourself killed," he said, shaking his head. The boy seemed too shocked to even cry out, pain blocking out any attempts he might have had. He shivered and shook, and then soiled himself in fear. The chakra tentacle wriggled in his gut, wallowing in his pain. Yori tried to yank it back, realizing that the Other was trying to exert it's will over the length of chakra. And, distracted by what he thought was a more pressing threat, he did not notice the kunai speeding towards him. In one final act of defiance before he died, the boy had thrown the weapon as hard as he could. It was clumsy and weak, hardly a flesh wound, but Yori recoiled as if he'd been struck by something ten-times it's force.
With a disgusting slurp, the writhing chakra tentacle disappeared, hand that had manifested it flying to his wounded shoulder. He yanked the crude weapon out and tossed it aside, hand applying pressure to the wound. It bled, ever so slightly, around the two edges of what seemed to be an impossibly clean and straight wound for a weapon so basic. He felt something move under the skin. His hand fell back on reflex, eyes growing wide in horror as the wound opened up to reveal an eye of it's own. It jerked around, and then locked it's gaze with Yori, streams of blood running from it's edges like tears.
The Hoshi-nin scrambled to focus himself and suppress the Other. And then, suddenly, the wound closed up again. Yori stared at the spot for some time, heart beat rapid as he waited for some new horror to take place. A minute passed, then five. He released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and relaxed. That had been far closer than he'd cared to imagine.
He fell back out of the tree as the wound opened up again, this time a tooth-filled maw, and let out an alien roar, cluster of string-like tongues lashing the air. Yori focused everything he had into the wound, channeling all he could to suppress the spawn before it grew bolder, ignoring the pain as he hit the ground.
It took ten minutes for him to wrestle the thing back under control. He forced it back down into it's pit, channeling chakra into the seal surrounding it. Soon. He needed to prove himself soon, and get this damnable mistake removed. Soon. Before it was too late.
'Hurry hurry,' he thought with a painful urgency, face full of worry. Yori turned towards the house where his partner was still gorging himself on his foul vices, 'Haven't got the time. Not enough time at all...'
Kaoru shivered in the corner, back pressed firmly against the wall as she watched with wide-eyed horror. She should look away, she knew, but she found it impossible. And so she watched, unable to tear her eyes way, room lit up by the unnatural light that streamed from her mother's face, pouring and flowing from her mouth and eyes. Her body was broken and spent, used in unspeakable ways. She could not tear her eyes away. She knew she needed to, but she could not, no matter how hard she tried. She couldn't close them either, fear keeping them bright and wide.
It had appeared out of nowhere, a spectre of the night that had broken down a door without warning or preamble. It was fast; the fastest thing she'd ever seen in her young life, though had she a more coherent mind she might have realized that she hadn't seen much at all in her life as a farm girl, and likely lamented it about it in the way people of her age were want to do. But, as it was, she was simply terrified, shocked, and silent, both in mind and mouth. So, she instead pushed herself harder against the wall and wet herself.
Katsura continued to drain away the woman's essence. He tore her soul to shreds, letting it fill his stiff bones with new, a bet stolen, life. He had gorged himself upon this stolen bounty, relishing in the limber memories it brought back to him, and the carnal cravings he had indulged upon his helpless prey. They had been a large family once, three generations living in the remote farmland, but even their life of toil could not have prepared them for Katsura's foul attentions. They were all dead now, save for the last girl that huddled in the corner, scared out of sanity or reason.
The former getsu-nin stared down into the withered face of the ravaged woman, drained completely of life, with a sudden disdain. It's dead eyes stared into him, the lines of age and death taunting him with their personal impossibility. This bitch had died, embraced that cold final moment, and he would never be able to do it, not now or ever. With a burst of unholy anger, Katsura tossed the body aside, shattering a wooden table into splinters as the body impacted and snapped at the spine. He stared at the broken form, fuming.
For the briefest of moments he saw his old teammates in the shattered form of the woman's body. It had been almost four years ago that he'd become the monster he was now. He had gone to Konoha for the Chuunin exams expecting to be the best there; no, not expecting, knowing. Katsura was strong and fast and beautiful, and he knew it. His teammates knew it, and he was aghast that other people refused to acknowledge it. He had, as expected, passed the first exam without much trouble. The blond haired idiot had drawn quite a bit of attention, he remembered, even if he wasn't entirely sure why that stuck out in his mind.
But that forest. That damned forest. Katsura was not prepared for that, he could now admit. Prideful though he was, even Katsura had to admit the plain truth of that fact. He had, after all, died there. His team had split up to find a target and scout the area. Katsura had let his guard down for just a moment, but that was enough to end his life. Sometimes, Katsura found it strange that he was unable to remember what it was that killed him; death had come so quickly. He expected to remember something so key, but instead he could only remember that dark abyss that he found himself in. He felt himself slip away from the mortal coil, and at that moment something broke inside of him.
Pride brought him back. He would not die this way. He could not die that way! Such a thing was unthinkable for him. Katsura's sheer bloody foolish pride had tethered his soul to his broken body. When he awoke, he attacked the nearest thing in mad frenzy, trying to satiate a sudden hunger that welled up inside. Clarity came after, and with that clarity came the realization that he'd slain his two teammates, ravaged their bodies, and stolen their souls. But, for the briefest moment, he felt so very much alive.
Katsura stared down at the broken form, anger subsiding as he felt the stolen life pulse within him. But it was a fleeting thing, and he felt it ebb, ever so slightly, even as he stood. It lasted shorter and shorter each time, and he knew it would be gone, and the hunger would return once more, the longing for that warmth of life.
He turned his head to the girl who huddled in the corner, still shocked dumb with fear. Katsura smiled. She was a pretty one, for a farm girl. He would take this one slower.
Sakura added another item to the list of reasons she had to loath Orochimaru as she leaped from tree to tree. So long spent underground, hidden away from the sun and trees, that it felt almost unnatural to be outside, in a way. It felt like a return, but one of peculiar unease; her senses felt dulled in the open, overwhelmed by the vibrancy of the world. She tried to shut it out a bit, focusing on simply following Sasuke-kun as he leaped ahead of her, heading to whatever destination he'd chosen for them. It was easier then, focusing on him. Still, she knew she would have to overcome this raw feeling sooner or later if she was to be useful, something she was quite determined to be.
She turned herself outward, taking in information as she kept pace with Sasuke. The trees here were vibrant, but were not of the kind most commonly found in the Land of Fire, nor the Land of Lightning or Stone. Her academic mind went to work, pulling out the details of the various species. It was a good mental exercise, and she found that it was helping get over that crushing awkwardness of the wide-open spaces, much to her delight. She didn't notice, however, that even while she thought, not once did she slip or fall behind her partner, and indeed closed the small gap that had formed earlier.
It wasn't until she'd figured out that they were in the Land of Rivers that she realized just how close she'd gotten to Sasuke; she was leaping next to him, a fact that he betrayed no surprise at. Despite their proximity, she found it still easy to follow his lead, and was admittedly giddy as to this revelation. It was intuitive, she realized: she was reading his intent before he made a move and following without a second thought. It was a level of synchronization she had not consciously realized they achieved. It wasn't until Sasuke gave her a subtle grin that she knew he'd realized it was well, and was pleased.
He pushed himself harder, and so she responded in kind, throwing herself into a feverish pace to keep up. She never fell behind.
They traveled in silence mostly, neither party having truly much to talk about at the moment. Eventually, however, Sakura's curiosity got the better of her; she knew a few of the prospective 'recruits' that Sasuke had mentioned picking up were being held in facilities around this region, but was less knowledgeable able to the extent of Orochimaru's operation. She hadn't, after all, functioned as one of his lieutenants as Sasuke had.
"Who is it we're going to get, Sasuke-kun?" she asked suddenly, though Sasuke hardly seemed to be surprised by the question; he almost seemed to have been expecting him. He grinned as he replied.
"Another one of Orochimaru's favorite experiments, and one with almost as much of a grudge against as us." he said, slowing his pace slightly as he spoke.
"Suigetsu Houzuki." he finished after a moment, recognition appearing on Sakura's face as he did. She did remember him, ever so slightly. Still, she wondered what he had that was so special to make Sasuke choose him.
She shrugged off the thought, knowing she'd find out soon. Besides, Sasuke had his reasons, and she'd no reason to question them. She trusted him, and she'd follow him anywhere.
Author Note:
Been busy, and unmotivated, so they chapter has been sitting on my computer half done for quite awhile. Figured I'd get it out of the door, and bring back a pair of very important characters, give a bit of their history and whatnot. Expect a few other loose ends from part 1 to get tied, and we'll be thrown into the thick of things.
To those who also follow Naruto-Sensei, I promise a chapter to that soon. I'll be shipping off to Basic Training in a few weeks, likely, but hopefully I can get one out before that. It's also about half done, but you'd be surprised how hard it is to write.