Just as he was about to chase after the man, another explosion followed by distant, animalistic shrieks caused the crowd to panic and scatter worse than a disturbed anthill. Sasuke felt and heard when Ikeda-san was shoved into his side during her attempts to escape. With a silent curse, he picked the old woman up bridal style before carefully leaping out of the crowd.
"Thank you," Ikeda-san kept repeating as Sasuke gently set her down on a calmer backstreet, but he was far more focused on where that man had disappeared to.
"Do you need help getting to the emergency shelter?" Sasuke asked, even though he would rather not be caught up in helping with civilian evacuation.
"Yes. Please," Ikeda-san didn't hesitate to say, her bony hands gripping even tighter on his arm.
Sasuke held back a frown, his eyes quickly glancing around. When he spotted what he assumed to be a genin judging by the still shiny and spotless headband on his forehead, he called out to the boy. The boy paused mid-step, his long, blue scarf trailing after him. Sasuke helped the shaky Ikeda-san over to the boy almost dumping her vice grip onto the boy's arms. "Hey!" the boy shouted in objection, but Sasuke glared at him.
"You're a genin. Genin help with civilian evacuation during an emergency," Sasuke pointed out, his sharingan spinning lazily.
The boy stared directly up at his eyes in consideration before recognition filled his gaze and he grinned, "Sure thing, Sasuke-nii-chan."
Momentarily distracted from his search for the Akatsuki member, Sasuke shot Konohamaru a weird look. The younger boy didn't seem to pick up on it, however, and kept on talking, "Naruko-nee-chan talks about you a lot."
Sasuke didn't have time to examine the boy's words and the newfound awe shining in his dark eyes. "Hn," Sasuke grunted before leaping onto a nearby roof to try to pick up on that Akatsuki member's trail. It hadn't been the orange-haired leader that he remembered from Kakuzu's memories, and it left Sasuke mildly concerned that there were other Akatsuki members that he didn't know about.
As his eyes quickly glanced around, he took stock of the situation. He could see several, large beasts all rampaging through the village, hurling themselves through buildings and causing chunks of concrete to fall to the streets below. Before he could make a move towards the destruction, however, he spotted the red and pink blur that was Sakura land a heavy punch to an overgrown centipede and push the beast back. Determining that Sakura wouldn't need any help, Sasuke headed in the direction that he'd seen the Akatsuki member take.
As he leapt from roof to roof, Sasuke got a closer look at the numerous shinobi attacking the village. Surprisingly, there was a lack of black and red cloaked shinobi fighting Konoha's forces. Instead, most of the intruders were wearing headbands that he couldn't identify. What village had a music note as their symbol?
Although the number of intruders to face and dispatch was plentiful, Sasuke avoided and ignored the majority of them. He had spared a few seconds to launch some kunai or shuriken to save an unknown Konoha shinobi from being slain from behind, but he hadn't bothered to stick around. Truthfully, he should be doing the most that he can to eliminate all enemies. But Sasuke had different priorities. Idly, he could hear Itachi's voice in the back of his head warning him not to do anything reckless.
Unfortunately, finding any Akatsuki member in the village was like finding a needle in a haystack. Just as a frustrated noise was leaving his mouth, Sasuke felt a familiar, rancid chakra signature brush against his awareness. Legs jerking to a stop, Sasuke felt his blood boil as his chakra roiled and caused some stray lightning to shoot from his fingertips.
Sasuke was sure that Itachi would consider hunting down Orochimaru in the middle of an invasion to be his vengeance taking priority. Furthermore, he was sure that his brother would consider it foolish based on the way that Orochimaru's chakra was rhythmically pulsing out the Konoha shinobi code for "here". Sasuke couldn't think of a more obvious trap.
The fire of rage that he'd initially felt was quickly growing into a cold, focused fury. Sasuke welcomed the change with open arms, the cooling of his rage was also introducing an immense amount of focus (and a bit of tunnel vision if he was being honest). By the time Sasuke was standing on a rooftop overlooking Orochimaru, he'd managed to mute most of his emotions.
Orochimaru was in the process of casually tossing the body of a lifeless chunin to the side when he turned his attention onto Sasuke. There were two others with him, but Sasuke's sharingan was busy cataloguing Orochimaru's every movement. Surprisingly, the snake wasn't wearing his Akatsuki cloak.
"Uchiha Sasuke," Orochimaru hissed his greeting with a deceptively amicable smile.
"Orochimaru," Sasuke smirked. "Was one death not enough?"
Orochimaru actually smirked up at Sasuke. "I have to admit that your doujutsu caught me by surprise the last time I saw you. It seems that the sharingan has more secrets than I thought," Orochimaru trailed off, his gold eyes staring at Sasuke's.
Instead of feeling intimidated, Sasuke felt his hackles rise in disgust. The look in Orochimaru eyes was one of intrigue, greed, and a bit of desire. As if to push his unnerving demeanor over the top, Orochimaru let his too long tongue flop out of his mouth and lick his lips. Sasuke gripped the hilt of his chokuto with a sneer as he jumped from the roof and moved in towards Orochimaru.
His heart was thudding in his chest, pumping adrenaline to all his limbs and (despite the seriousness of the situation) filling him with a giddy sort of excitement. His sights were locked on Orochimaru's motionless form, his sharingan spinning rapidly and on the verge of shifting into his Mangekyo. He'd dreamt of this very moment months ago, but he hadn't truthfully expected Orochimaru to pull a miraculous recovery from being burnt to less than ash. Sasuke felt mildly curious as to how Orochimaru had managed to pull it off, but his curiosity took a back seat to his need to plunge his sword through the older man's heart.
Despite his tunnel vision, Sasuke was able to see the attack coming at him from a mile away thanks to his sharingan. One of the shinobi that had been silently observing until now was currently rushing towards him with his fist pulled back. Slightly annoyed with the interruption, Sasuke jumped out of the way of the man's fist and tossed a few shuriken at the orange haired man. Sasuke had been fully intent on ignoring the man. But when he'd bat away the shuriken with a transformed, left arm and released a loud cackle, Sasuke had had no choice but to focus on the manic man.
"I think you'll make a decent first victim!" the man exclaimed and charged at Sasuke again, his fist changing into a piston-like ram. Even in the face of yet another unfamiliar jutsu, Sasuke could only feel his irritation grow. This man had some nerve to issue death threats when he moved as slowly as a chunin- which Sasuke made sure to let the man know.
"He's faster than I expected, but not by much," Sasuke heard a new voice speak up in an almost dismissive tone.
"Don't be so quick to pass judgement, Kabuto," Orochimaru's raspy voice chastised.
From the corner of his eyes, Sasuke could see Orochimaru and another male observing his fight (if it could even be called that). They had twin assessing looks aside from the look of intrigue in Orochimaru's eyes and the look of disinterest in the white-haired man, Kabuto's. With an affronted huff, Sasuke locked eyes with his opponent just as the man was swinging his axe-shaped arms down onto Sasuke's head. It was even easier than Sasuke expected to place the man in a genjutsu that disrupted his chakra flow. The man suddenly froze in place, his arms losing their transformed shape. He blinked his clear, orange eyes down at Sasuke in shock and a bit of awe, but Sasuke was already sending him flying into a nearby building with a powerful kick to the gut.
"Not bad, Uchiha Sasuke. But I wonder what else your eyes are capable of," Orochimaru said with a grin.
Channeling lightning through his chokuto, Sasuke moved. He could feel his heart pounding in time with his quick steps, his anticipation and adrenaline fueling his actions. His eyes and mind were moving both in slow motion and far too fast, cataloguing Orochimaru's still form and predicting the exact moment that his sword would pierce the man's flesh. He noticed the growing smirk on Orochimaru's face before he became aware of Kabuto quickly moving through hand signs.
At yet another interruption, Sasuke's annoyance was starting to increase. Kabuto was faster than the other man had been, but his hits lacked any raw power behind them. Sasuke could see every swipe of Kabuto's chakra covered hands coming from a mile away and needed minimal effort to dodge the swiping chakra blades. Kabuto was making a decent effort to avoid Sasuke's gaze, keeping his eyes on Sasuke's chin.
The only bright side that Sasuke could see from the constant interruptions to his revenge was the fact that Orochimaru hadn't left yet. The snake was content to stand along the edges of the fight, not interfering and instead observing and offering commentary. Sasuke had been intent on ignoring the words coming from Orochimaru's mouth, but he couldn't help but sneer when he heard Orochimaru proclaim, "You will make a wonderful vessel, Sasuke."
"Vessel?" Sasuke repeated and used a finger to trap Kabuto in a genjutsu. He wasn't surprised to feel how quickly Kabuto was beginning to break free of his illusion, but it wasn't fast enough to fend off a quick slice to the neck. Sasuke watched Kabuto's eyes go wide as he clasped a hand around his bleeding neck. Sasuke pushed the dying man away with a disgusted noise before turning to Orochimaru in question.
"I will need a new body soon and yours will be perfect. I had considered taking Itachi's or Shisui's, but I think yours has more potential," Orochimaru said and grinned.
"Orochimaru-sama!" a young woman exclaimed as she landed at Orochimaru's side in a breathless panic. "I sensed a lot of chakra…" the red haired woman said as her red eyes slid over to Sasuke.
"It's alright, Karin. Sasuke-kun was just showing me what he's capable of," Orochimaru explained.
"Uchiha Sasuke…" the woman said, recognition lighting her tone. The woman didn't look to be much of a challenge, despite the large chakra reserves that Sasuke could see moving in and around her.
Sasuke was about to refocus on Orochimaru when he sensed Kabuto shift behind him. With far superior speed, Sasuke shifted to the side to dodge the chakra scalpel that had been aimed at his heart. Kabuto's eyes were wide in shock again, the supposedly fatal wound at his neck perfectly healed.
Sasuke knew that chakra scalpels required fine chakra control and intense mental focus to maintain in battle. Sasuke couldn't say whether the boy's miraculous healing and chakra control were better than Sakura's, but he could tell that Kabuto wouldn't be easily slain. Sasuke scoffed once and sheathed his chokuto. Kabuto warily watched him, still keeping his gaze away from Sasuke's eyes and hands. It was almost amusing to see how much effort Kabuto was putting forth to avoid another genjutsu.
"I have to admit, I hadn't expected such a proficiency with genjutsu from you, Sasuke. I thought that genjutsu was Itachi's specialty, but I suppose that you are an Uchiha," Kabuto hesitantly praised.
Not bothering with hand signs, Sasuke let his lightning release coat his hand as he moved in towards Kabuto. At the last second, Sasuke channeled chakra into his legs to give him a burst of speed that caught Kabuto nearly off guard. The other boy was lucky enough to dodge the Chidori that Sasuke had aimed at his heart. But Sasuke had planned ahead and was already twisting to fire his Chidori Senbon at Kabuto's joints and vital organs.
Admittedly, Sasuke was feeling frustrated that his vengeance was being delayed so much. Orochimaru was right there and he was stuck wasting his time with weaklings. Therefore, Sasuke felt some small satisfaction at seeing Kabuto stumble and fall to a knee once his movements were restricted by the lightning needles imbedded into his joints. Hands chirping almost too loudly, Sasuke sunk his hand into Kabuto's chest and pierced his heart.
Killing Kabuto didn't give him any satisfaction. Kabuto had been a little persistent, but ultimately weak. Besides, it wasn't his death that Sasuke truly wanted. Despite still having his hand in Kabuto's chest, Sasuke locked eyes with Orochimaru. A sense of anticipation plateaued within him as Sasuke pulled his hand away from Kabuto's body and let the boy fall at his feet. The snake had the gall to look almost as eager as Sasuke felt.
"I'm almost flattered by how much you wish for my death, Sasuke."
He could practically see the calculations working behind Orochimaru's eyes as he spoke. The lanky man was still grinning, his body deceptively lax. Thankfully, the woman was staying out of the way and (finally) allowing Sasuke a clear path to his goal. He could feel his own killing intent rising with every passing second, filling the deserted and rubble-covered street. Without conscious effort, Sasuke could feel his Mangekyo swirl into existence. Suddenly, Orochimaru stopped grinning and watched Sasuke warily.
Every dream and nightmare he'd had of killing Orochimaru would pale in comparison to the actual thing.
His lightning spilling over from his hand and up his arm, Sasuke moved to close in on the snake again. Before he could get close, however, Sasuke felt and heard Kabuto shift and move yet again. Frustrations reaching their boiling point, Sasuke quickly turned to grasp Kabuto by his neck and catch the boy off guard.
Kabuto's eyes were wide as he tried to pry Sasuke's vice grip away from his neck. The hole that he'd left in Kabuto's chest was healed over, the skin still pink. The boy's chakra reserves were running low. Sasuke highly doubted that he would be able to pull another miraculous revival. Even so, Sasuke wanted to ensure that there would be no more interruptions. With an incredible amount of calm (despite the storm of emotions raging within), Sasuke said, "You're annoying me." His left hand glowing green with medical chakra, Sasuke pushed his chakra into Kabuto's chest.
When he'd first started learning medical ninjutsu from Sakura, he'd quickly learned that his chakra was far more potent than the average shinobi's or even the average Uchiha's. Sakura had made sure to stress how finely he had to control his chakra in order to avoid accidentally killing someone by overloading their chakra pathways. Not bothering to leash his chakra now, Sasuke let it ravage Kabuto's chakra pathways while simultaneously spurring an onslaught of unregulated, cell growth. Sometimes, the simplest solutions were best.
Releasing his grip on Kabuto's neck, he let the writhing and screaming boy fall to the ground before stepping over him. Still not bothering to control his chakra, Sasuke let the beginnings of his Susanoo cover him in a purple glow. With his heightened vision, he could see the exact moment doubt started to seep into Orochimaru's eyes. "I don't know how you managed to survive the last time. But it doesn't matter. When I kill you this time, I'll make sure that you stay dead," Sasuke said as his Susanoo's ribs started to form.
"Come then, Uchiha Sasuke," Orochimaru said, doing a decent job of hiding any hesitation in his tone. Suddenly, Orochimaru took the offensive and started moving through hand signs for what Sasuke could tell was a fire jutsu. Unfortunately for Orochimaru, Sasuke had no intention of letting him cast any jutsu. Faster than Orochimaru could dodge, Sasuke shot out a skeletal hand from his Susanoo to grab the snake sannin and hold him mid-air. "Sasuke!" Orochimaru shouted in objection while futilely trying to break free of his Susanoo.
A slideshow of his last fight with Orochimaru was playing in his mind's eye, flashes of desperation, chilling fear, and blood making his hatred for the snake grow. He could even recall so many of his dreams, the deaths of many Orochimaru clones all playing at once in his head. "Hn," Sasuke smirked. Finally, his brain stopped on the memory of Naruko dead under his hands. His Susanoo's grip tightened until he heard the telltale sound of bones cracking and blood dripping down onto the dirt ground. From the growing puddle Sasuke could see purple fumes of poison start to rise. "Pathetic," Sasuke scoffed and lit the blood and poison ablaze with his Amaterasu. "You disappoint me, Orochimaru."
Orochimaru's head sluggishly lolled forward so that he could fix a furious glare onto Sasuke. "Upstart brat," Orochimaru hissed and dropped his jaw. Sasuke wasn't sure what was going to come flying out at him, but it hardly mattered. His eyes recognized the blur that left Orochimaru's mouth for what it was and he quickly set the snake ablaze.
Tossing Orochimaru's lifeless, broken body aside, Sasuke turned to watch the large the large, white snake with Orochimaru's head shriek and writhe. His Amaterasu burned away many of the snakes comprising Orochimaru's new body, but Sasuke was surprised to see some of the smaller snakes unattach themselves from the main body and start to slither away. With a noise of frustration, Sasuke quickly tried to set the fleeing snakes on fire or crush them beneath his Susanoo's fists. By the end of his rampage, the area was littered with crushed and burning snakes in addition to the burning original body. Sasuke was seconds away from tossing away rocks and debris to ensure that he'd gotten every snake when he heard Orochimaru's familiar laugh.
"Ku ku ku," the giant snakehead managed to get out. "You continue to impress me, Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru said with a final chuckle before the last of his chakra faded from the snake husk.
Sasuke was furious. As much as he wanted to deny it, Sasuke wasn't completely sure that he'd managed to kill every snake before they could escape. He stared down at the white snake almost uncomprehendingly. After all of that… Orochimaru had still managed to slip away? His jaw clenched as his fury peaked. His whole body was shaking in barely contained rage as he let out a loud obscenity.
He had one goal- a single objective- and he'd failed again. Orochimaru was most likely fleeing the village, getting farther and farther away and taking this chance away from Sasuke again. Fists clenched and entire body tense, Sasuke lashed out at the person that had been slowly approaching him from behind. Fortunately for them, they managed to dodge his wild strike. When he recognized the orange haired man that was now calmly watching him, Sasuke sneered with a glare.
"Uchiha Sasuke," the man started. "I am in your debt."
Despite his furious expression, his confusion must have been apparent on his face because the man continued, "Only one other person has been able to help me control my rage and he has long since passed on. I am grateful to you for stopping my blood rage."
"Jugo," the woman said as she tentatively approached. When Sasuke looked at her, he had to furiously blink his eyes to clear his blurry vision, but he could see the wary looks she shot the man in between quick glances at Sasuke.
"Uchiha Sasuke, you are my cage. I pledge myself to you as your shield," Jugo continued on with a bow of his head.
Sasuke scoffed. "I don't give a shit what you do," Sasuke dismissed. When he turned a fiery gaze on the red headed girl- Karin was it?- she straightened with a squeak and a light flush to her cheeks. Barely holding back another scoff, Sasuke rolled his eyes and turned away from them both.
"Sasuke-kun," the woman called out after him, but didn't pay her any mind. His rage was still simmering away within him, and he had every intent to find seek out another Akatsuki member. He was so seriously itching for fight that even one of those shinobi he had avoided earlier would satisfy his need to hit something.
"What's that?" Karin suddenly asked.
Against his better judgment, Sasuke spared her half a glance, but she was shielding her eyes from the sun while looking up at the sky. Even Jugo was mimicking her. With a silent huff, Sasuke looked up as well. At first, he had some difficulty identifying what he was seeing. But then he recognized the shape of a man- one with orange hair, piercings, and a black and red cloak. "Pain," Sasuke breathed just before he saw a flash of white light and felt an unseen force rock the earth and send him flying. He shielded his eyes from the rocks, dust and debris that had been unearthed with him while summoning his Susanoo to protect him from the larger chunks and channeling chakra to his feet once he touched down onto the ground again.
The rumbling seemed like it was lasting forever, a never-ending cloud of dirt and dust making it impossible to see. Idly, Sasuke could feel someone gripping his leg tightly. When he looked down, he was only slightly annoyed to see Karin doing her best to stick to the ground with chakra while also trying to stick to him. Jugo was in better shape, but even he had resorted to kneeling and sticking with hands, feet, and knees. Once the quaking subsided, Sasuke slowly lowered his arms from his face and blinked his eyes to clear away the dust. It took a while for the dust to clear enough for him to see anything, and what he could see were large chunks of rubble and splintered wood forming a ring around where his Susanoo had been.
"Is it over?" he heard Karin asked from where she was still attached to his leg. He couldn't muster the effort to shake her off him, he was frozen in shock at the rest of the village.
Konoha, his home, was gone. He barely recognized the giant crater that was his village. If it weren't for the stone faces still intact on the mountainside, Sasuke would be hard-pressed to say that this was Konoha.
"Holy shit," he heard Karin whisper in shock now that she had let go of him and was looking around at the damage.
He could feel her eyes watching him, but he had nothing to say. What could he say? The village had been leveled. He was sure that countless people had died. He could only hope that those he cared about were alright. One saving grace that he could think of was that his brother and Naruko weren't in this mess.
Suddenly, Sasuke spotted a sudden shift in Pain's chakra that was still covering the village. For half a second, he was tensing in preparation for another attack, but when he identified the chakra signature that was disrupting Pain's he felt his stomach sink in dread. Like a shining beacon, he could sense her chakra from miles away as it signaled to everyone that she had returned. Why? Why couldn't she stay where she was safe!?
"I sense someone else's chakra," Karin said and stared in the direction that Sasuke was looking.
"Dobe," Sasuke hissed and grit his teeth in frustration.