SUMMARY: Sasuke's body is successfully weaponized by Orochimaru and Kabuto's joint efforts, but perhaps they went too far in making him a weaponized body for Orochimaru to possess later on. Fem!Naruto, after all the events at the Chuunin Exam and Sasuke's subsequent desertion of Konoha, has been locked into the Anbu Training Program and is nearing its completion. Neither of them are the same, yet they both still have the same problem of being unable to let go. They are still at the beginning of their paths in life, so they still have much to learn. Eventual SasuNaru.

A/N: Hi! This is something I've been writing recently, so I'd like to know what you think! There's not much to it yet, since I've been kinda writing as a late-night pastime (let's be real, I'm just avoiding anything related to the word "studies") and haven't exactly plotted this out at all. So that pretty much means if it goes in a direction I don't like or a lot of readers don't like I might just abandon it... But anyway, please enjoy! It's just a short introduction, since it's a prologue :)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto or its characters.

TOUBOU SHIYOU [1]

Prologue

"Arrgghhhh!"

Rending the cool, crisp air was yet another scream. It was long past dark, long past midnight. But like all things in a village made specifically for shinobi, this was nothing out of the ordinary. The fact that no civilians lived in this village made it even more normal to all the inhabitants, as they lurked about the dimly lit buildings.

To call them buildings would actually be terribly wrong—they resembled rooms more than anything else, since the shinobi who decided to join Otogakure were not particularly keen on staying in any one of the hideouts for overly long periods of time. That wasn't their intent to, after all. All except one.

Uchiha Sasuke was laying on a steel table, gasping and panting for breath. There came an evil chuckle as Orochimaru drew forward into the light, into Sasuke's vision. "Heh, Sasuke-kun, it can't be that bad. You've survived every poison I've administered to you so far, so why fail now?" The Uchiha's bindings rattled as his abdomen clenched involuntarily. He clenched his jaw. As long as he survived, he would work as hard as his organs were working to eradicate all feeling, unnecessary as it was.

Not even an hour later, Sasuke had just about finished convulsing on the table, signaling that his body was approaching complete immunity to the poison. "Let me up," he said. "It's done."

But Orochimaru had different plans. "Kabuto," called the Sannin. "There's more to be done here. You've integrated a basic self-generation of poison antidotes to Sasuke-kun's DNA. But there's more to be done. For me to withstand the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki [2]–"

"–You need more latent abilities," finished Kabuto. He then took on a concerned tone, saying, "But Orochimaru-sama, does your current vessel have enough time?" The grey-haired shinobi was met with derision.

"Time?!" Orochimaru began to laugh, slapping a pale hand to his face, teeth glinting like a snake's. "I'm immortal—I have all the time in the world!" Though hesitant at first, Kabuto laughed with him.

Sasuke watched them with faint disgust from under the shadow of his dark hair, though he could honestly care less what happened to him at this point. As long as he became stronger, he would eventually be able to defeat Itachi and get what he deserved: the attention he was never given all those years ago when Itachi was so busy with Anbu. His father had made sure he knew how much of a disappointment he was in comparison anyway. But before he could control himself, a high laugh escaped from his chapped, thin lips. And when they looked at him in surprise, he just snarled, "If you're gonna do something, do it already!"

"Tch, Sasuke-sama, please be patient. There are many things that require discussion, and like us, you'll get what you want in due time." Kabuto's explanation was barely sufficient, and Sasuke did nothing but turn his head. Acknowledging such a poor reassurance was as much a waste of time as those training sessions Kakashi held "to build teamwork" or whatever bullshit he spouted in order to just barely fulfill the minimum of being a Jounin sensei. His lip curled at the thought.

"Gokurou [3], Sasuke-kun," said Orochimaru finally to the Uchiha. "But there's still more that can be done here." He then gestured for Kabuto to proceed. The grey-haired medic nodded in response, heading to a nearby table to pull out a rather intimidating-looking silver-armored box and heave it on top. Releasing the clasps, the lid snapped back with a hiss, releasing with it a shade of his past demons. No—it was just heavy, yellow-colored mist pouring from the box, inducing a sick feeling in Sasuke's chest.

Kabuto lifted one syringe filled with an uncomfortably bright yellow liquid, already explaining, "Ah, Sasuke-sama, this is the first of three doses. I've separated them so it's not so taxing. This treatment is," he paused, lifting his free hand to push his glasses back into place, making them glint unreasonably in the already dimly lit room, then continuing, "special."

"What's so special about it?" Sasuke gritted out, rattling the cuffs that bound him to the cold metal table. He hated it when the grey-haired fucker wouldn't get to the point.

"With the funds of Orochimaru-sama and all the experimental subjects I want, my genius has no bounds," answered he, smiling maniacally. "I've created a way to strengthen your body—from within the bones! Hehe, with this, your body will never break! And if it doesn't break, you'll never have to waste time or chakra healing it! Hahahaha!"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed in interest. With a way to avoid the unhandy periods of rest due to a broken limb, he could accelerate his training even more. Kabuto continued his rant, "Soon enough, I'll have a way to reverse aging! But first, I'll start with you, with making the conversion of red bone marrow to yellow bone marrow a little more dynamic." And finally, he primed the syringe, angling it upward to remove the air, flicking off the drop that followed.

For the Uchiha, the first prickling sensation of the insertion of the needle was nothing; the dull pressure of the liquid entering his blood vessels was not an accurate impression of its work.

At the beginning, his body was lax as the first pinpricks began to spread from their point of entry. But as his entire surface area was encompassed, discomfort reared its head, and he shifted slightly, despite being limited by his bounds. That single movement cost him greatly.

Pain exploded from all directions, surfacing just below his right clavicle, gnawing at the inside of his left leg, lancing through his spine. He arched involuntarily, but this just caused another wave of blinding pain—it smashed into him with the force of a boulder rolling down a mountain. It was sharp, pricking at his skin; it was dull, pushing at his muscles; it was mental, inadvertently clocking his mind in overdrive.

Please, he thought. If this is hell, then please. Let me escape.

[1] TOUBOU SHIYOU – the title of the work, Toubou Shiyou, or 逃亡しよう, means something along the lines of "Let's Escape" or "Let's Run Away"

[2] Kyuubi Jinchuuriki – in referencing wanting to withstand the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, or the container of the Nine-tailed Beast, my idea is that Orochimaru's end goal is to be immortal. Because of that, he would want to be able to withstand the power of a Jinchuuriki—the strongest known one, at that

[3] Gokurou - ご苦労 | This means "thank you for your hard work" or "I appreciate your efforts"

A/N: And that wraps up the PROLOGUE chapter! I have no clue how I'm gonna make this story progress yet, but I've got a few ideas in mind! Let me know what you think through PMs or reviews! This is still a fledgling story, so hopefully it can go somewhere, but not all birds fly!

Please note that this story was not edited by a third party after being written. It was written and subsequently posted here.