Opening - Love Deterrence by Nana Mizuki
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Orochimaru's right hand flicked out and curled into half of a Ram seal, pointing lightly with two fingers at Kimimaro. His fingertips lit up with a ball of clean white light just over an inch across. He made a light flicking gesture in Kimimaro's direction; the ball fired from his hand as a straight bolt of searing lightning. It instantly struck the dead center of Kimimaro's shield, blew it apart into smoking black shrapnel and threw its owner across the underground chamber.
Karin reacted with two coordinated teams of ten shadow clones sprinting at Orochimaru from opposite directions. For an instant his prosthetics blurred together in front of his chest; he resorted to using a single hand seal for his next cast. A rush of wind filled with invisible blades struck Karin's incoming forces; at the same time Orochimaru soared high above them on a mighty gust pouring straight upward.
He settled into place there with ease that surprised Karin; she grimaced and lowered her twin swords slightly. "Juugo, back me up!" Without another word she cast a fresh wave of shadow clones, all of whom sent blade-tipped chakra chains into the air after Orochimaru.
Meanwhile at the other end of the vast chamber, Kabuto focused his glare on Sakura's eyes, filled with the bloody glow of the Nine-Tails' chakra. He clapped his hands into a Snake seal and brought the power of Sage Mode to bear down on her, the air around him visibly thrumming with green light.
The walls of the hollowed tree thrashed inward, sending tendrils of live wood in toward the center where they wove into a single cord. Quickly and smoothly it transformed into a giant snake, nowhere near Manda's size but still formidable. It hissed in an implausibly deep tone and lunged down after Sakura, its eyes huge and luminous with an aura of lime-green senjutsu chakra.
Her gaze flicked up to meet it but kept Kabuto at the edge of her field of vision; she shifted her feet slightly and crouched down as it approached. When it was in range she shot back up to her full height and punched the snake in the exact center of its face, sending a visible tremor up the length of its body to the very tip of its tail.
The scales made of bark over its wooden flesh shattered to bits, but the snake itself held together and pushed back against Sakura's knuckles with prodigious strength of its own. The stone under her feet shattered and she sank through the shards up to her ankles. With a roar she smashed her off-hand into the side of the thing's jaw, sending it flying away over the floor. The snake crashed down and tumbled across the chamber, still in one piece but completely outmatched.
It struck the wall of the underground chamber and came to a stop, but as it did Sakura was already there to continue her attack. She aimed for its head and unloaded one world-shattering punch after another to the top of what might have been its skull. Shockwaves of faint white burst from her flying fists, cut through with wisps of angry red that could only be the Nine-Tails' chakra. Even with the White Strength Seal fully opened and supplemented by demonic chakra, it took several blows for her to gradually cave in the thing's head.
Even then she faced the problem of keeping it down permanently; the construct was made of solid wood with no vital organs to target. Even with its head smashed to bits of sharp wood, the rest of the snake continued to stir sluggishly against her.
Suddenly, the shards she had already broken off rose to attack her. She recoiled back and shielded her face with her arm, but the rest of her body was peppered with stinging splinters. "Shit!" she bit out and crouched slightly down, then jumped further backward for enough space to pull the wood from her wounds and heal them.
Behind you! Kurama thundered a moment too late. Kabuto's own fist slammed into the back of her head, the impact made all the more damaging by her own momentum toward it. Her healing ability, though spectacular, did nothing to make her body more durable. A blow to the head from an attacker with Sage Mode was enough to knock her out cold.
Kabuto planted a foot on the small of her back and made a hand seal to restore the head of his Wood Release construct, then produced the Sword of Kusanagi from the sleeve of his Akatsuki robe and flipped it into a reverse grip. He stabbed the blade into her back, guided by the Byakugan to run clean through the middle of her heart.
Then a flying kick from another Sage Mode user sent him flying headfirst away from her, leaving behind the mythical blade in her chest. Sasuke drew the sword from the wound and spared a moment to watch it immediately begin to close. Her healing is even stronger than Naruto's, Kurama admitted. She'll be fine, so stay focused!
"Hn!" His Eternal Mangekyou rapidly spun a single full rotation, and with the Swords of Totsuka and Kusanagi in hand he sprinted after Kabuto. The Otokage brought up his empty hands to catch the blades as Sasuke swung them; a shell of dark brown wood guarded his palms so he could use the Gentle Fist to parry and strike back.
The snake's coming back, said Kurama. Sasuke glanced in its direction, saw it lunging toward him at full speed and opened a wormhole in its path. The thing's momentum carried it through, and the other end of the portal faced straight down to aim its bite at the length of its own body. Its fangs snapped in its mouth and it fell into a tangled heap, dangling from both ends of the wormhole. Sasuke glanced in its direction and scattered a few patches of black flame over it for good measure.
Kabuto, meanwhile, retreated well back from Sasuke and scanned the vast chamber with his Byakugan. It extended well beyond his default field of vision, but once he pushed himself to view all of it at once he found what he was looking for. Perched high up on one of the distant stone walls, Karin had left a shadow clone to watch the battlefield with Kurama's unmistakable red eyes.
He snarled and flicked a kunai of polished wood from up his sleeve, aiming it at the clone who had ample time to move away across the wall. But the blade stabbed into the rock and held there; she noticed the explosive tag wrapped around the handle a moment too late. It exploded and sent a blast of stone and wooden shrapnel into her; not enough to kill a shinobi but plenty to pop a shadow clone.
The Sword of Kusanagi shuddered against Sasuke's grip and the blade flew for his throat. His eyes widened and he let go of the Totsuka to grab the Kusanagi by its edge, just barely stopping the tip short of his neck. Kabuto grinned viciously and flicked his empty hand in Sasuke's direction; the blade's length doubled and it sliced cleanly through his jugular.
Hand and throat pouring blood, Sasuke let go of the sword and stepped back. Kabuto struck him with a point-blank Vacuum Palm that threw him backward with a splash of red. Sasuke cast Yomotsu Hirasaka behind his back and immediately crashed to the floor in front of Karin at the other end of the room.
"Kami!" she gasped and crouched over him. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" With a burst of smoke she raised an army of human shields between herself and Orochimaru, buying enough time for her to lay her arm between Sasuke's teeth. He bit down and his wounds healed shut with bursts of what looked like steam; Karin swayed on her feet with the sudden loss of chakra. He turned away from her and coughed up a splash of blood that had already spilled down his throat.
A flash of lightning and a roar of thunder tore away almost all of Karin's forces; Sasuke jumped at the sound. "Get outta here!" she clapped him on the the back and stood, clasping her fingers together in a clone seal. "We can handle him; go help Itachi!"
"Hn," he nodded and opened a portal lower to the ground; he dove in without fully rising to his feet. As it closed behind him, Karin looked past her remaining guards. Orochimaru's attention was divided between Suigetsu and Juugo; he hovered above the battlefield to keep himself at ninjutsu range and dodged their attacks supported by a cradle of visible wind.
He held up his right prosthetic hand clasped in a half-Ram seal, his fingertips wrapped in wisps of glowing white. He slashed them downward and the Wind Release attack detonated, pouring out waves of mist filled with crescent-shaped blades of wind and chakra; they struck everywhere at once and left no chance for the Konoha-nin to dodge.
Suigetsu and Juugo took the attack directly and relied on their healing abilities, but having just spent hers Karin instead buried herself under a mountain of shadow clones to survive the hit.
When the mist and dust cleared, Juugo clapped his palms together and mutated his arms together into a single massive cannon. His legs grew thick and straight; a tail shot from the base of his spine and became the third leg of a tripod supporting his weight. The barrel, broader than his own body, was filled with angry blue light aimed at Orochimaru.
At the same time Suigetsu lit up his swords with sun-yellow electricity, and swung them upward to cast off dozens of twisting thunderbolts in Orochimaru's general direction. Juugo fired his cannon and the floor shattered to dust under his legs; the Sannin dodged the vast blue orb first and then wove between the lightning attacks with movements both eerie and graceful.
He emerged unscathed and drew back his right hand, fingers curled into the palm like claws. With a sudden rush of spiralling wind, clear blue chakra swirled together over his palm and coalesced into a whirring bright disc.
Suigetsu was the one who recognized it first; his eyes visibly widened at the sight. "That's..."
"A Rasengan," Karin breathed, still half-buried under what was left of her clones.
"It's close enough," hissed Orochimaru, and he swung his arm toward Suigetsu with the unfinished jutsu. The limb stretched grotesquely toward its target, who dodged with an Empty Wind but was followed. As Suigetsu reappeared after his movement jutsu, Orochimaru flicked the pirated Rasengan from his extended hand with shocking speed.
This time it struck home, but at the paired blades of Kiba rather than their wielder. It exploded on contact with the right blade and tore it from Suigetsu's grip; he went flying back with only the left-hand blade. Possessed solely by instinct, Suigetsu sealed the sword away in a strap at his wrist and called forth Shibuki instead.
Orochimaru swept his left hand forward before Suigetsu could even realize his mistake. A bolt of lightning tainted harsh green shot through the air from his fingertips, squarely into Suigetsu's chest past the guard of Shibuki. Kiba had given him a way to turn aside Lightning Release attacks, but behind them the body of a Hozuki Clan shinobi was unusually vulnerable to them. Suigetsu fell gracelessly, his body pouring off steam and ozone.
The Sannin turned his attention reflexively on Kimimaro, still reeling from the lightning attack he'd taken at the start of the battle. But now he was beginning to stir under his armor, so Orochimaru struck him with another green shock that filled the air with the scent of silicon and something worse but unrecognizable. Kimimaro slumped, his bone armor cracked and scorched black.
Like clockwork, his hand aligned next in Karin's direction. She dispelled her remaining clones and scrambled to her feet, but at the same time he primed and fired another radial blast of mist and wind-blades. She moved to cast another wave of human shields but it was too late, and only Juugo's intervention saved her life. He came to a stop facing her and took the wind blades across his back; his expression spoke of pain but orders of magnitude less than what Karin would have expected.
It's down to you and her now, the Nine-Tails commented. I get the feeling you've been waiting until the last second to do something big. This is probably it, kid.
Yeah. "Karin, go see if you can wake Kimimaro up. At least cover him with some clones or something, otherwise Orochimaru'll just hit him again. I can handle this."
Catlike scarlet eyes blinked back at him, then glanced up at Orochimaru held aloft by total mastery of elemental ninjutsu unmatched by anyone in the known world. She thought of questioning his plan, but unable to come up with a better one, she nodded.
Juugo turned to face Orochimaru and grew. His arms grew longer than his legs, to support his weight on all fours while his torso stayed upright. The stone-brown pigment of his senjutsu transformation darkened to pure black, then abruptly paled to ashen grey. His teeth tapered to razor-sharp fangs in his mouth, which opened slightly to show them but not with an angry grimace. The tail he had grown earlier thickened and split into two identical ones, thin and long. It was only that last addition which made Kurama suspicious.
Orochimaru frowned, then shrugged and lashed forward with both hands. A green bolt burst from each of his palms and slammed into Juugo's chest; he reeled back two long steps but then steadied himself. His jaws opened wide and a green glow swelled up from his throat, nearly matching Orochimaru's own jutsu. He let fly a broad green beam made up largely of senjutsu chakra; Orochimaru barely dodged it and Kurama's eyes narrowed at the sight of it.
Juugo, what the hell?
That felt right! I think I should do that again! The airborne Sannin charged his hands with more sickly green electricity, this time letting fly a bolt from each fingertip. Juugo crashed backward and the stone shattered under his weight; as he stood Kurama noted the blackened patches on what was once his skin. It was bone rather than flesh, solid bone through to the core of his body.
Again came the glow from deep in his throat, but this time he let it burst forth in scattering green orbs of light less than three inches across. They coalesced into a single rough ball before his fangs; he pushed it toward Orochimaru with a flick of his neck and watched it gain speed as it flew.
You've got to be kidding me. Again Juugo's paired tails swelled and split, this time into four smooth tendrils of flexible bone. His hair fell from his head and he charged another green chakra blast, this time shaping the sphere further into a rounded cone pointing at Orochimaru. The evidence Kurama saw was overwhelming, but still he felt the need to verify it. Juugo! I'm gonna look through your mind; if you've got a problem with that say so now.
No problem! Juugo replied in a voice not his own, carefree and gleeful. Let me know if you find anything!
As the two monsters continued to trade green-tinged ninjutsu blasts, Kurama noted that Orochimaru seemed to have the upper hand despite Juugo's attacks having more brute force behind them. The Sannin dodged each knockoff Tailed Beast Ball and emerged unharmed, and returned fire with jutsu that struck home every time.
But Juugo seemed unconcerned, so Kurama turned his attention away and dove into the depths of the boy's mind. He traced a line back through Juugo's life, his surrender to Orochimaru preceded by an encounter with Kimimaro at the western edge of the Land of Wind. You crossed over a mountain range to the west; you came from the other side after wiping out a village.
I remember, said Juugo. I didn't think there was any civilization over here; I was trying to get away from people.
Kurama worked further back, and as he did he commented, I've been on the other side of those mountains too. I haven't found where this all started but I can guess. Juugo recoiled from the impact of a wind blast that tore up the stone floor around him as well; deep gashes were carved through the bone replacing his flesh but they quickly healed over. There was no blood spilled, nothing of value lost, and although Orochimaru forced him back he was unfazed.
The four tails behind him doubled again into eight, but Kurama already knew how that would end. You were born in a city on the far side of the Land of Wind, past the edges of any map we have here. That city was at the bottom of a valley... I was born there too, before it was founded.
I'm not angry, Juugo noted, a hint of clarity coming into his voice. I'm supposed to be angry when I use this power. What's going on, Kurama?
You're just about to stabilize now, the Fox realized. You're at eight tails already, that definitely has something to do with it.
Eight tails? The boy snapped fully from his stupor and looked behind his back. He was in time to see the last pair of tails sprout fresh from the base of his spine, a total of ten lashing bone tendrils polished to an ashen shine. What, said Juugo, just before he was hurled off his feet by a wave of flowing yet solid stone raised from the floor.
My thoughts exactly. I know where your powers come from.
Juugo heaved against the stone liquid Orochimaru was trying to drown him with; it shattered instead of flowing against his strength. Purely on reflex he opened his mouth to charge and fire another green Tailed Beast Ball; this time he detonated it even as Orochimaru dodged aside and caught him in a white-green explosion of chakra. What happened to my voice!?
That valley you were born in used to be a crater, Kurama carried on. It's where the Sage of Six Paths fought the Ten-Tails and eventually sealed it. There's still fallout from that battle, leftover green chakra from the jutsu it used... it's been sitting there for a thousand years and your ancestors built a damn city in the middle of it.
What the fuck, Kurama!?
Your abilities are a mutation your family developed over generations, or at least that's what I can tell. I can only see what you remember, and I have to guess from there. Anyway, part of your mutation is actually a fucked-up copy of the Ten-Tails' kekkei genkai... the Shikotsumyaku.
Oh Kami. Juugo utterly failed to dodge the next bolt of lightning from Orochimaru, this one fiery orange that hung in the air and melted the rock under Juugo with its intensity. With both hands the Sannin kept the electricity flowing; Juugo sank to the waist in molten lava and howled at the pain even though it was greatly dulled.
Yeah. That's why Mariko's life force was all stored in her bones; she was copying you. And if I had to guess, I'd say that's also why you listen to Kimimaro. On some level his bloodline clicks with yours, makes you think of him as a kindred spirit. And I'm not sure if you've noticed, but your whole body is made of bone now. The Ten-Tails was the same way.
Juugo thrashed upward and cast off a great splash of lava; he roared and shook the earth with the sound. Stop! Just stop, I can't hear any more! Orochimaru charged his prosthetic hands with more orange lightning and shoved it at Juugo in a continuous stream; the solid bone making up his chest blackened and burst into flame.
He screamed, not with pain but with pure existential horror. Since childhood the question of his family's powers had loomed darkly in the back of his mind, but now he found the answer was orders of magnitude worse. He swept up his ten tails to pass through the sustained orange thunderbolt at his chest, shattering Orochimaru's jutsu entirely.
He charged ahead and leapt into the air, flying headlong toward the Sannin with his long arms reaching out. His target swiped through the Ram, Tiger and Dog seals with dizzying speed, and struck him mid-flight with a narrow jet of blue light. On contact with Juugo's head it exploded into a roaring clear river, carrying him back with force to match.
Keep it together, Juugo. Your friends are still counting on you! Kurama roared. Juugo rose from the crashing rapids and charged another emulated Tailed Beast Ball. Hold on to it; crush it down as small as you can! A thin veneer of red chakra washed out over the green orb and helped compress it from Juugo's own height to a pinprick no larger than an ant, nigh-invisible at a distance. Make this shot count... aim... FIRE!
At the other end of the room, Sasuke emerged between Itachi and Sakura with blood still dripping down his throat from the freshly healed wound. Itachi's red-orange Susanoo stood tall over himself and a prone Sakura, still out cold. The Wood Release snake loomed between them and Kabuto, still in one piece despite Itachi's best efforts, which included setting it ablaze with Amaterasu multiple times.
"It's tough," the older brother admitted. "I've tried most of my tricks, and I'd be here all day if I had to fight it alone."
"I've got a few ideas," Sasuke replied. "Jakuzure!" The pink coils draped over his shoulders stirred; her head emerged from where she'd covered it and she flicked out her tongue quizzically. "I'm gonna combine my Susanoo with Itachi's. I need you to add senjutsu chakra to it."
She sighed with exasperation. "Yeah, fine." The gold around her eyes brightened, then gradually faded as Sasuke formed his Susanoo over his brother's. "At this rate," she grumbled, "You might as well ask me for the Kusanagi and Kabuto's cloned snakes when this whole mess is over."
"You can do what you want with those," said Sasuke, "as long as I and my team don't die here." He channelled the Sword of Totsuka through the gargantuan hand of his Susanoo to slice deep through the wooden snake's throat; it gurgled and flinched away but then went back on the offensive. It lunged headfirst into the Yata Mirror, bounced off and was completely decapitated by Sasuke's next counterattack.
The snake continued to move even without its head, so Sasuke went a step further and flowed all of Kurama's chakra into the vast length of the sword. It lit up with high-pitched scarlet lightning and he ran through the headless body of the snake with it; the demented Chidori burned jagged lines of black through the wood. He twisted the sword in the wound, and the snake shattered to bits at its charcoal seams.
For a moment, Kabuto stood facing the massive double-layered Susanoo with no protection at all. But then he brought his hands together and grew five more identical wooden snakes, and as they surrounded the Uchihas he drew the Sword of Kusanagi as well.
Sasuke moved first, smashing ahead with the Yata Mirror into one snake's face. A second lunged up and around the shield and was met with a stab from the Totsuka long before it could land a hit. Sasuke turned his sword in the snake's neck and sliced out of it to decapitate a third entirely.
The fourth and fifth snakes circled around in an attempt to strike behind Susanoo's back; Sasuke swung the Yata Mirror hastily back to catch their bites just in time. With his front now exposed, the unharmed first of the five hissed and snapped toward him. Guided by the Sharingan's precision, Sasuke brought up the Sword of Totsuka between the thing's fangs and it bit down on the blade instead of him.
Susanoo's arm smoothly rose; the senjutsu chakra flowing through it added to its already monstrous strength. Sasuke swung the blade and the snake was flung loose, only to crash into the third snake still reeling from the stab into its throat. The two crashed together and flew back toward Kabuto, but he held up a hand and stopped them at a safe distance.
Jakuzure's head rose from where she rested it atop Sasuke's shoulder; she drew in a breath and held it for a moment. Sasuke saw her chakra building up and leaned his head back just before she opened her mouth; a booming song featuring several instruments that hadn't been invented yet spilled forth from her throat, visible as it shook the air on its way to the two downed snakes.
On contact with it they exploded into splinters, and she lightly adjusted her aim to strike Kabuto next. He recoiled back from the weaponized sound but didn't die instantly; he opened his mouth wide even as his veins visibly burst and spilled blood under his skin. His eyes widened with horrible pain, but only for a moment before he shed his wounded body and emerged unharmed through its mouth.
As he did, Sasuke brought up Susanoo's lower pair of arms and aimed a great recurved bow at Kabuto. The red lightning flowing through the Sword of Totsuka abruptly flew loose and took the form of an arrow on the string. He drew the weapon back smoothly but quickly, and let the shot fly into Kabuto as his serpentine tail was still rising from the mouth of his shed body.
The shot carried him back and pinned him to the far wall of the cavern; once again he Substituted away from the fatal damage just before the Chidori arrow burned his shed skin black. He soared past it with his lower half still transformed into a snake's tail, and clasping the Sword of Kusanagi with both hands he swept it at Susanoo.
The blade extended to the necessary range and smoothly carved through the solid stone walls and the earth behind them; it only stopped with a tremor on contact with the Yata Mirror Sasuke raised as a defense. "As long as he has that jutsu, he can heal from all of our strongest attacks. We need to stop him from using it," he noted.
"It looks like it's an automatic process," said Itachi. "He sees an attack coming and primes the jutsu, then it automatically triggers once he's wounded. So even if he's not in the right mental state to cast a jutsu, whether because of pain or a genjutsu or any other distraction, it still heals him."
"Hn. So Tsukuyomi won't help us." Sasuke's eyes rotated once, now lit red only by the Sharingan and not Kurama's chakra. "That jutsu uses his wounded body as raw material to make a new one from scratch; that's why it looks like he's just shedding a layer of skin. So if we cut him off from that supply of material he needs..."
"Cut off his head and he can't grow a new body," Jakuzure finished. "It might work, but Kabuto leaves behind some bits of his old body every time he casts it. That should mean he has less mass each time, but it doesn't look that way at all. He can probably make up the difference by spending chakra."
Look at it another way, said Kurama. One way to stop a human from casting a jutsu is to keep him from making hand seals. The one gesture he always makes when he heals himself is...
Opening his mouth?
If he can't open it, he can't send out a new body.
"But how do we...?"
Sakura gasped and sat bolt upright. She thrashed and slapped at herself as though she were on fire, but the burning pain was gone as suddenly as it had come. "What the fuck, Kurama!?"
Sasuke handed full control of the double-layered Susanoo to Itachi, and whisked away Sakura and himself with a Yomotsu Hirasaka portal. It opened above them and swept down; the tunnel inside the wormhole sloped from vertical to horizontal and kept them hidden within. "We should do this quickly," he murmured. "Sakura, do you have some kind of poison that can keep Kabuto from opening his mouth?"
For a moment she looked puzzled, but only a moment. "...Yeah, I do!" She drew a kunai from her pouch and laid it against her wrist; Sasuke started forward with puzzlement of his own as she slashed deep through her skin.
"It's a torture tool; we use it to immobilize parts of a ninja's body while increasing their reactions to pain in the same place." She produced an empty glass vial and dripped some of her blood into it; the liquid had turned a threatening purple-black already. "Grab a guy's hand and he can't pull away; he just sits there as you break his fingers. But the rest of him is still mobile, so he can scream and give you whatever answers you want."
"But this poison targets the mouth instead?" he asked.
"Yeah. I had to tweak it a bit; normally the mouth is the only part you don't want paralyzed." She handed him the vial with care not to drop it. "I'll hang back until you get this into his system. He won't notice until he tries to move his mouth, so you'll have a chance to hit him with a jutsu he thinks he can heal from."
"Perfect." He palmed the vial of poison and grinned darkly. "I'll make sure to break his jaw before I finish him off!"
The far end of the portal rushed up and set them gently back inside Susanoo, but with Sakura now alert and on her feet. Sasuke reclaimed control of Isou Susanoo in the middle of a direct duel with Kabuto; the Sword of Kusanagi met the Totsuka and held an even battle with it. Kabuto stood his ground despite Susanoo's greater brute strength, turning blows off-course and dodging them in place of outright blocking moves.
Abruptly the Totsuka vanished from Susanoo's hand, and Kabuto seized the moment while still knowing it meant some new attack from the Uchihas. He curled his left hand into half of a Horse seal and raised six mighty Wood Release snakes to charge viciously at the chakra avatar.
He jumped out of a portal behind Kabuto, who saw him coming with the Byakugan and spun to catch the Totsuka with the Kusanagi. The sword was wrapped in a dense layer of black embers, the liquid itself hidden from view. Sasuke gave their locked blades a quick shove and Kabuto stumbled back through a Yomotsu Hirasaka door just behind.
He yelped in shock and pain as his Byakugan was assaulted by a shape his brain couldn't parse. To see the wormhole from inside and look out past its edges at the space it skipped over was too much; he shut off his doujutsu immediately and blocked Sasuke's next slash by line of sight.
They fell into the blackness even as they traded rapid blows, the wormhole sloped abruptly downward before levelling off in a long square hallway to the far end. Kabuto landed first and fell into a crouch; Sasuke mirrored the move but then jumped up again and flipped completely over Kabuto. The Otokage set off a Revolving Heaven that grabbed Sasuke mid-flight and whipped him into the unbreakable wall of the wormhole.
He bounced off the hard surface and rolled to a stop along the floor, coming up battered but whole and with a half-Ram seal clasped in his left hand. "It's already over, Kabuto! You should've stayed out of this whole war!"
Kabuto held the same seal himself; the Sword of Kusanagi poised low in his other hand. "I've come this far," he snarled. "But you're right, it is over. Once I take your eyes I'll have the whole world in the palm of my hand! I'll break out of the Infinite Tsukuyomi, kill Madara, and rule over everyone! It'll be complete!" His voice cracked with emotion; Sasuke pegged it not as sorrow but as overwhelming excitement. "I'll be complete! So fucking die!"
Sasuke drew in a breath and blew it out; Kabuto brought his fingers up and slashed them down.
"Great Fireball Jutsu!"
"Vacuum Palm!"
Their attacks met and filled the hallway with scattering flame; Kabuto saw for a moment that his jutsu was pushing Sasuke's back and his face lit up. But then Sasuke himself shot through the raging flames, letting them catch on his clothes and skin even as he slammed into the Kusanagi with dizzying speed. Kabuto backpedaled quickly; the flames poured light and smoke from the Uchiha's body and partially obscured his ferocious attacks.
The Sword of Totsuka lightly nicked the fingers of his sword hand, the most common sort of injury in a battle between two sword-wielders. He gasped through his teeth and drew the hand back, dodging to the side of Sasuke's next slash instead of parrying it. He counted himself lucky that the slice hadn't cost him a finger or his grip on the Kusanagi itself, at least until the polished blackness under his feet fell away.
He found himself suddenly returned to the cavern he'd prepared; he managed to land on his feet but found himself staring directly at Itachi's Eternal Mangekyou. His chest burst into black flame and he curled forward, the motion suggested a retch but nothing happened. His eyes widened in horror and he visibly struggled to open his mouth, struggled and failed.
He fell forward screaming through his locked teeth. Orochimaru! He howled desperately through the Cursed Seal. You bastard! Do something!
Orochimaru lowered his crackling green-glowing hands, hovering high over a battered Ten-Tailed Juugo with his back to the wall. Even with his transformation the boy was completely outclassed by Orochimaru, behind whom a vast blue-green sun gave off a few more flares before it began to shrink. The Sannin thought for a moment on the implications of Kabuto's order, and in the end he decided to obey it by laughing.
Visibly dazed with smoke curling up from his blackened bone armor, Kimimaro arrived over a prone Kabuto via Pulse Step. He produced a one-handed bone sword in a reverse grip, aimed it over Kabuto's heart and stabbed it down with a single smooth motion. The look of desperation on the Otokage's face, the look of terror stayed for a moment longer, then he went limp and his head chipped the stone floor.
Orochimaru cut off his jutsu completely; his prosthetic hands went dark and the well of phenomenal power closed behind him. He continued to laugh, watching as Kimimaro fell backward into a sitting position. His helm crumbled away from his face; the boy looked stunned.
The rush of wind holding the Sannin aloft died gradually; he turned toward Kimimaro as his feet touched stone. "I propose a truce," said he. "I think that's in all of our best interests, don't you?" The knight nudged Kabuto with a single blackened boot; the Otokage didn't move.
"It is," said Sasuke. "Hokage-sama told us to offer you terms of surrender if you survived this mess. You might have information we need."
Orochimaru touched his neck; the Cursed Seal binding him already had begun to fade. "Really?" He asked absentmindedly. "Naruto seemed the sort to hold a grudge over that invasion three years ago. I'm guessing he wasn't happy to make that choice."
"I wouldn't know." he nodded in Kabuto's direction. "Kimimaro, give it to him."
The knight let his burned armor crumble completely; he produced a small scroll from his pouch underneath and tossed it to Orochimaru. "A Zetsu clone," he murmured shakily, still in poor shape from the successive lightning jutsu he'd been struck with. "The ideal host for you. It comes with the Wood Release, enhanced strength, and a regenerative ability that might fix the flaws in the Living Corpse Reincarnation."
The Sannin's skin burst apart completely, revealing his true form even as the unfurled scroll fell from his hands. The White Zetsu clone was released with a shocked expression; it only had a moment to look up at the monstrous white snake before it was swallowed and possessed. The two together spent a few moments in the form of a hideous white blob, but after a moment it took a human shape once more.
He looked younger, with distinctly softer features and a skin tone that seemed somehow healthier while still being inhuman white. His hair was shorter, smoother, neater; his eyes were wider and brighter gold. Through and through, Orochimaru looked more alive.
He stepped steadily forward, and as he did the black-purple pigments around his eyes turned vivid gold. Jakuzure's own matching eyes widened considerably. "Sage Mode!? But he's walking! That should be impossible!"
"I," said Orochimaru as he came to a stop over Kabuto, "have had a very long time to fantasize about what I would do with a body that could withstand the rigors of senjutsu." he kicked Kabuto's body over onto its back and crouched over it. "I couldn't actually test my theories, but I kept them in mind, kept improving them over the years."
He reached down and held his hand just above Kabuto's eyes; for a moment Kimimaro thought he would close them respectfully. But Orochimaru dug his fingers into the sockets and ripped the Byakugan free, one after the other. "I can only imagine it's a secret the Snake Clan would want dearly; it would give you an edge over every other summon clan out there. Entering Sage Mode flawlessly while moving... would you bargain for that?"
"That depends on what you want back," she replied coldly.
"In return for my improved Sage Mode," said he, "I want continued use of the Sword of Kusanagi, and a summoning contract with the Snake Clan."
"You can have the contract, but the sword comes with me," she hissed. "It's been out of our hands for way too long, and I don't trust you."
He stabbed his hand into Kabuto's chest and yanked out something alive; it was a black-green snake as long as the Kusanagi's blade coated with fresh steaming blood. "Well." with a flick of his newly restored right hand he called the jian back, and after a moment admiring the blade he sheathed it. "The summoning contract is all I need to gradually earn that trust back, and in time, you'll see me as a member of the Snake Clan. At that point, you'll surely see no problem with granting me the sword."
She thought for a moment, her tongue flicking in and out as she hesitated. "Give me the sword, Orochimaru."
He sighed, but his smile remained in place. He approached Sasuke and Jakuzure at a walking pace; it seemed more threatening for the lack of a movement jutsu. The conscious members of Taka drew themselves up to prepare for an attack, but after what seemed like forever Orochimaru held the sheathed Kusanagi at arm's length. Jakuzure took it between her teeth; she smiled slightly with relief.
"I have no problem with waiting, Jakuzure. You know that." She nodded; the sword was light as air thanks to her own Sage Mode. "Now, that leaves you," he turned his gaze from Sasuke's shoulder to his eyes, unafraid to meet the Mangekyou Sharingan. "I imagine it'll be harder for me to make right with Konoha than Ryuuchi Cave."
"Hn," Sasuke smirked; it wasn't quite a chuckle but it was close. "You'll have to talk to Naruto later, but for now we accept your truce. Madara and Obito are still out there; maybe you can help us deal with them."
"You said something about information," said the Sannin. He stepped back but maintained eye contact; as he retreated the tension steadily went down as well. "I'll be honest; Kabuto did what he could to keep me in the dark. But Obito came here earlier and told him... You and your zombies are a sideshow to distract the Alliance, nothing more. He also explicitly mentioned that Madara was busy somewhere else."
It took a moment for Orochimaru's words to parse, but as they did Taka's eyes collectively widened in horror.
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