Kaliea: Hi all. Here's the chapter.
Chapter 5: Team four vs. Orochimaru
Blood slowly ran down Orochimaru's cheek like a small red raindrop. His sickly green eyes where crazed as he reached up with his tongue and licked it away. "Sso," he began. "The little Uchiha boy hass come to play. Where iss your little brother?"
Itachi's dark eyes crackled with angry energy. "Away from you."
"Kukuku," Orochimaru chuckled. "Maybe for now, but he wont be for long."
Tired of talk Itachi activated his sharingan, the three identical blades swirling dangerously. Whipping his hands together Itachi started his first series of hand seals. "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu," Itachi said before he drew in a deep breath, preparing to unleash his grand fireball attack, when suddenly his left leg buckled beneath him causing him to loose, not only his balance, but also his concentration on his jutsu allowing the chakura he had molded to quickly unravel.
Haishi, the only conscious clan head, could only watch in mild horror as the oldest Uchiha boy collapsed. His skin was so pale it was nearly translucent. Itachi gave a violent shiver and his chalky white lips quivered slightly with a fever-induced chill.
Orochimaru smirked down at the helpless boy. "Well, well," he sneered. "it sseemss that my ssnake'ss poison hass finally begun to effect you."
Itachi started slightly before he remembered the slight graze he had received from that snake he had defeated earlier. Nearly frantic, Itachi reached out his shaking hands towards his numb leg and proceeded to tear the cut cloth open further until he almost fully revealed the calf hidden underneath. Itachi grimaced at the sight. Sure he was a jonin but he was still only eleven so even though the sight didn't make him hurl, it did make his stomach turn uneasily.
A cut no longer than two inches was and enflamed red giving the impression of gummy blood plastered to his sickly pale skin. He shivered at the amount of blood. His pant leg was soaked and it was still coming. Itachi drew in a ragged breath and thought absentmindedly about how strange it was that he hadn't noticed it before.
"You know," Orochimaru began thoughtfully. "You were poissoned a little over an hour ago and yet you are jusst now falling to the sssymptomss. Mosst ninja'ss who have been injected don't live passt twenty minutesss. Hm," he thought aloud. "You might be worth sstudying," he grinned maliciously. "If you ssurvive that iss."
Itachi glared up at the snake angrily. There was no way he was going to become some psycho-snake-man's guinea pig. He'd die first! Dots began to swim in Itachi's overly clear vision as he shook his head gently, trying to dispel his sudden dizziness. Itachi bit his lip. If his leg continued to bleed like this he just might die first.
'Oh the irony…'
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Hikari sped through the trees as fast as she could, hoping to make it to Itachi before he had need of her. Landing expertly on another branch Hikari continued to move, jumping forward and pushing of with her left foot. Suddenly, for seemingly no reason at all, Hikari's left leg buckled beneath her, throwing her dangerously off balance. Letting out a startled cry Hikari attempted to adjust her falling body so that she could land in a crouch a few branches below the one she fell from.
"What was that?" she asked herself shakily. Almost as if answering, a dulled pain slowly spread up her left leg to flow through her entire body. Hikari was confused. She hadn't done anything to injure herself but here she was feeling pain. Actually, she really wasn't feeling pain, more like a shadow of pain. She knew it was there but she also realized that it wasn't her feeling it. So who…Itachi!
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"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura called suddenly, effectively startling the young Uchiha. "Ichigo is near!"
Sasuke looked over at her in confusion. "What do you mean she's here?"
"Well," Sakura started, as flustered as a confused six-year-old could be. "I-I don't know. I mean I know that she's here cause I can, you know, 'feel' her. I don't know why she's here though. After all, we're pretty far away from the Haruno estate…"
"Where is she, Sakura-chan?" Hinata asked shyly.
"Um," Sakura started while biting her lower lip. "Over…there? I can't really tell. Something's blocking my heartstrings."
"I'll sniff her out for you Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed softly (is that possible?) so as not to be over heard by the enemy.
"Please do Naruto-kun," Sakura whispered urgently. "And hurry, I think she may be in trouble."
"Right away, Sakura-chan!"
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Itachi stared in shock at Hikari's back watching her white hair flow gently in the slight breeze. Her emerald eyes were narrowed dangerously, crackling with green fire. With out turning her gaze from Orochimaru's stunned form Hikari knelt down next to Itachi and formed a few hand seals. Her hands glowed a soft pink. "Poison-purge no jutsu." Hikari said darkly before she placed her glowing hands onto Itachi's wound. Almost instantly Itachi felt the poison retreat towards the infected opening and watched in mild fascination as a glob of silvery-gray liquid floated up into Hikari's open palm. With the venom extracted Hikari wasted no time in healing the cut with another jutsu, still not taking her eyes off of Orochimaru's recovering frame.
"Ready to even the score, Itachi?" Hikari asked as she jumped up and fell into a stance, her right leg was held up off of the ground, knee bent. Her weight was centered over her left foot and her left arm was held up next to her shoulder for extra balance, while her right arm was held in front of her, posed to punch, perfectly in line with her right knee.
Itachi nodded dully and stood to her right, falling into the stance opposite her own. His left leg was stretched out strait and his right leg was bent extremely low keeping him close to the ground. His left hand was directly in front of him, palm out, and holding up his middle and pointer fingers, his right arm was fisted tightly up against his ribs.
Now that they were in position the two partners began to center their thoughts, focusing only on each other's moves and filtering out all unwanted emotions that could cause a fault in their symmetry.
Unimpressed by the unusual stances or the overly focused looks on his opponent's faces, Orochimaru didn't bother to drop into his own fighting stance; instead he opted on summoning another of his snake minions to do his bidding.
Itachi and Hikari smirked in unison, both their thoughts the same. He would regret ever underestimating them.
The first snake lunged swifter than the eye could see but instead of hitting its intended targets it wound up with a mouth full of dirt. Reeling back in agitation, the snake hissed and spit attempting to relocate its missing objectives. Finally it spotted their shadows nearly hidden behind the thick trees. If it could have the snake would have grinned. 'Ssstupid humans.' He thought as he slithered quietly up to the hidden nins. Opening its mouth wide the snake made a vicious strike only to be caught off guard when Itachi flew from his left, hands flying. "Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu!" Itachi shouted sending a thick tongue of flam flew into the giant reptiles open mouth, burning it thoroughly from the inside out. Not long after Hikari leapt up behind him, the illusionary shadows she had cast immediately disappearing as soon as they hit the ground and fell back into their respective stances.
"What!" Orochimaru shouted through gritted teeth. Finally he forced an evil smile. "Well, you two sseem to be much better than I originally anticipated. Perhapss it iss time I became sseriouss."
The two said nothing; instead they coiled their muscles tightly, preparing for another strike. The three stood rigidly, neither wanting to make the first move. Finally Hikari grunted and lunged forward. She never could stand long silences. Launching herself towards Orochimaru Hikari ran swiftly along the ground pulling back her fist as she ran. At the last second she took a giant leap and flipped up and over Orochimaru's head throwing him off. In the snake-man's confusion Itachi quickly took over the gap that Hikari had just vacated, launching a sharp roundhouse kick to Orochimaru's unprotected left side. Orochimaru threw down his hand to block it but Itachi anticipated this and swiftly ducked under his right arm just in time to avoid the ax kick Hikari slammed down onto Orochimaru's left shoulder causing it to pop loudly as it dislocated.
Hikari used her momentum to flip backwards and land soundly onto the monument behind Orochimaru's hissing frame. Orochimaru turned to face the two pre-teens, his sickly green eyes shooting poisoned daggers at the pair while he pulled his arm sharply and placed it back into its socket, hissing and spitting in pain the whole time. Itachi did nothing but watch, his blood red sharingan spinning rapidly.
All rationality gone Orochimaru threw himself at the two children who should have posed no threat. After all, he had taken out the hokage, and it was clear that these two where nowhere near his standards as good as they may be. Unfortunately he had underestimated them giving the two partners the, much-coveted, element of surprise.
Itachi reacted swiftly by grasping Hikari tightly around her wrists and swinging her sharply to the left in order to avoid the on coming charge, then using the centrifugal force of the spin Hikari planted her feet and shot Itachi feet first at Orochimaru's retreating back. Orochimaru stumbled and nearly fell off of the hokage monument while Itachi rebounded off of his back and flipped backwards to land next to his panting partner.
Without glancing at each other the two began to clearly separate sets of seals while Orochimaru spun around to face them once more.
Itachi finished first with Hikari only a split second behind.
"Mind-sight no jutsu!" Itachi shouted.
"Solar-flash no jutsu!" Hikari called in recession.
With his eyes close Itachi wasn't affected by the bright flash of light or by the sudden pitch into absolute darkness, and with his jutsu activated Itachi could still see Orochimaru. As soon as the snake was in the proper position Itachi's eyes flew open only to be greeted by darkness so deep even his sharingan couldn't penetrate it, but it didn't matter because he knew where Orochimaru was looking. "Mange sharingan." Itachi muttered and the blackened world suddenly gave way to a rush of blood red light. Orochimaru gazed about the bloodlike terrain apprehensively, unsure of where he was and what was happening. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Itachi appeared a dark glare sported on his childish features. Suddenly he smirked.
"For the next twenty-four hours you will be tortured to as close to death as possible."
Orochimaru screamed as pain tore through his body repeatedly. Not just any pain, but the 'your-skin-is-slowly-being-pealed-from-your-bones-layer-by-layer' kind of pain. Which, incidentally, was exactly what was happening.
As quickly as he appeared in the dull landscape, Itachi was gone, unable to stomach such terrible cries even if they were of an enemy. Once he had pulled out of the dreamscape and was back into the real world, Itachi panted heavily trying to regain the strength he had lost in performing such a technique that was almost completely out of his ability range.
"Are you alright, Itachi-kun?" Hikari asked concernedly as she kneeled next to her panting friend. Itachi nodded and waved her off knowing that Hikari was also incredibly drained from her own jutsu. They had nothing left and they knew it, (they couldn't even move!) but at least they had struck a serious blow for Konoha and the kids before they went down.
After about twenty-four minutes, Orochimaru began to stir. Finally his eyes snapped open and glared dangerously at the two worn kids before him. With out warning his neck stretched and his deadly fangs struck with speed and precision, leaving two identical bite marks on Hikari and Itachi's necks. The two partners cried out in pain and collapsed into unconsciousness, unable to fight the growing seals due to fatigue.
Orochimaru stiffly approached their limp figures, nudging them none to gently with his booted foot. "If I didn't need you to locate thosse bratss I would kill you right now for all of the trouble you've caussed me." He hissed angrily. "Kimimaro!" he snapped to the only surviving member of the once sound five. "Take them away."
Kimimaro bowed deeply before he reached down, scooped the two young jonins into his arms and carried them away.
End chapter 5
Kaliea: It's really starting to pick up now! Next chapter: Who is Ichigo and how is she related to Sakura? Find out in the next chapter of "Holding out for a Hero"!
Review Answers:
December Jewel: I'm glad to hear it. Dispite the fact that everyone already knows about the Uchiha and Hyuuga bloodline limits it's still fun to try and write it all out.
Dragon Man 180: Oh he did some damage. What he did exactly wont be made apparent until later though.