"Sasuke..." Naruto growled. Sasuke grinned smugly.
"Naruto... Old friend..." His voice carried a hint of another, more sinister soul in its tone. "Heh heh. Are you happy to see me again, Lord Hokage?" Naruto snarled in response.
"Sasuke... What's wrong with you?! You've changed..."
"Changed, have I? Hmm... I don't know what you mean. But enough talk." His face contorted into an expression of pure agony. He dropped to his knees, groaning and panting as his curse mark spread over his body. Naruto looked on in silence.
"Unh... unh..." Sasuke panted as he stood. "Hmm... Even after all these years I still don't find that pleasant..." He spoke in a casual tone, as if he was merely pointing out a storm cloud in the distance. He stared at his now clawed hands indifferently. Naruto was awed by the transformation.
Sasuke's hair had turned a strange shade of blue-violet, growing enough to hang just past his shoulder blades in a wild, unruly mass. His skin was dull and gray, and claws protruded from his fingertips and toes. Two wing-like shapes sprouted from his shoulders: one made of brown snakes and another of a gray hand-like shape covered in clawed fingers. A shuriken-shaped black mark covered his nose and rose between his cold eyes; black with amber irises. The mark ended above his now purple lips, which were parted above his long fangs in a sinister grin.
"Mmmh... ah..." Sasuke yawned as he stretched and cracked his knuckles. He flexed his fingers, black lightning crackling around his arms as he expelled Jakku's chakra from his. His face suddenly contorted in rage. "Are you ready?!" he yelled. "Let's end this now!"
"Sakura," Jakku whispered. "Sakura. Come on, Sakura. Come on, wake up." He shook her gently. Silence pressed around him and enveloped the forest in a cloak of fear. Sakura's slow breathing continued steadily, but she didn't stir.
"Come on," Disura echoed. "Wake up." Sakura's eyes moved restlessly beneath their lids. She groaned, then gasped and opened her eyes.
"Sasuke!" She whipped around in confusion. "Where is he?! I have to stop him!"
"No, wait!" cried Ruku. He grabbed her arm. She whipped around furiously and tried to punch him, green chakra pulsating around her fist. "Hey, no, hold it!" he yelped as he surrounded himself with an ice jutsu. It shattered beneath her fist, but he was utterly unharmed. He stared on in shock as she dashed away.
"Sakura!" Sango cried angrily.
"Think about what you're doing!" yelled Disura.
"Gah!" Jakku growled angrily as he leapt in front of her. She slid to a stop and glared at him. "Stop, Sakura!" She threw a chakra-filled punch at him and he blocked it with one of his own. Angrily, he disabled her chakra, yanking her arm behind her back and shoving her to the ground. "Stop..." he whispered gently.
"Sasuke... Naruto..." she sobbed. "I'm... too late... I'm sorry..."
"You're not too late," said Tatsumi.
"Yes I am! I know why you five are here. I couldn't stop him before you came. Now that you're here, I can't even try!" Tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Says who?" asked Sango. Everyone looked at her in surprise.
"Sango," Tatsumi whispered as she pulled her aside. "What are you thinking?! Our mission is straight from the Hokage! If we disobey him -"
"We won't be."
"What do you -"
"Give me ten seconds, and I'll show you."
"Chidori!" Sasuke cried, aiming his Lightning Blade straight for Naruto's heart. Naruto leapt out of the way with relative ease.
"Ugh!" he grunted as the lightning seared his arm and tore through a thin layer of skin. Sasuke leapt forward and struck at him a second time - a miss, but close. Then a third, a fourth, a fifth - all misses with only small damage to Naruto. By the end of the fifth, however, Naruto was covered in small gashes and bruises. His clothes were becoming ragged with small tears, and small streams of blood stained his white robe. He panted lightly, both from pain and the effort of dodging the Chidori. Sasuke smiled spitefully, and Naruto felt rage rise inside of him.
"He's toying with me!" he realized furiously. "He's just slowly wearing me down!" Sasuke glared at Naruto from across the field, not breathing more heavily at all. "Those weren't misses," he realized grimly. "He could've already killed me... Why's he just...?" The answer continued to elude him. "Well the heck I care! I'll just kick it up a notch!"
"Sango, are you sure this is gonna work?" Ruku asked anxiously.
"No. But who cares? Isn't a shinobi's whole life based on risks?"
"Well, yeah, but -"
"Besides, think of what's at stake. Who knows what'll happen if we don't succeed, but if we do, we can protect all of Konoha, stop Sasuke... maybe even change him. Not to mention save Naruto's life. This isn't just an A-ranked guard mission anymore. This is a full S-and-above battle situation." Sakura nodded slowly.
"And... what if Sasuke -"
"If he threatens the village's safety, Sakura, we have no choice but to kill him." She nodded again.
"I know... you're right..." Sango shot her a pitying look, then motioned for the others to stop. As they touched down to the forest floor, they all fell silent.
"He's close," said Disura. "I can sense it."
"We all can," said Sango. Then she concentrated deep into the recesses of her mind and body, laying her palm against the ground and spinning a web of chakra outward. A strong force repelled it in one place to the northeast. "Naruto," she thought. "And... there's Sasuke," as she felt the repulsion again a hundred yards from Naruto. She froze as she identified something else. Even as her chakra touched it, it sent cold, physical energy back to her in pulsating waves. Sango shivered. It came from near Sasuke, or maybe Sasuke himself, but it wasn't his chakra. With a gasp, Sango pulled her mind back into reality.
"Sango, look," said Tatsumi. Sango turned her head to where Tatsumi was pointing. Black smoke hovered over the ground directly above where Sango's chakra had been. Unlike normal smoke, it swallowed up nearby light like a void. Even as they looked, more floated up from within the earth and poured over the surface, like liquid night.
"Sango, your hands -" Disura said anxiously. Sango glanced down at her hands - or where they should have been. All she could see were two clouds of the black, voidlike substance. It chilled her hands, a cold fire like liquid nitrogen. Her pulse pounded in her wrists, but her hands felt dead when she tried to move them despite the pain on her skin.
"What is it?" asked Ruku.
"It feels like..." Jakku said as he and Sakura swept their hands through it.
"Chakra," Sakura finished. She blew on her hand, and the substance rolled forward to hover above the ground again.
"But, how could it be?" Ruku asked. "It doesn't look like any chakra I've ever -" He stopped suddenly, looking to his right at Sango. She was ashen white and trembling violently. With a soft gasp, she leaned to the side and coughed, a small pool of blood staining the ground at her feet. Her legs buckled, and she fell forward heavily. Jakku moved to grab her.
"N-no!" she cried. "Don't touch the - the ch-" She coughed up more blood. Even as they watched, the black chakra around her hands began absorbing into them, a black pattern spreading over her arms in the shape of her veins. Sango slowly looked toward the others. Blood trickled from her mouth over her pale lips and skin, and her eyes were so glazed it appeared she was blind. A trembling hand edged toward her sword.
"Stop her!" Sakura screamed. Sango seemed to regain a fraction of her senses, her eyes opening ever so slightly wider. Then it vanished. and she grabbed at her sword again. But that split second of hesitation was enough. Tatsumi, Disura, and Ruku tackled her and held her arms and legs. Sakura and Jakku each took one of her hands in theirs, forcing the strange chakra out of her body with their own.
The results were immediate: color returned to Sango's cheeks, her eyes regaining their deep brown color. Her trembling ceased, her hands relaxing and dropping away from her sword. Within two minutes, all of the chakra had been removed. Sango groaned and shook her head.
"Unh... What was that about?" she asked tiredly. "I could see and hear you, but my body wouldn't... listen to me..." The color drained from her face again, this time in fear.
"What?" Tatsumi asked nervously. Sango pointed over Tatsumi's shoulder, and she turned. The ground covered by the chakra was smoking and sizzling, melting away as if covered in acid. The trees with roots buried there immediately withered. Sango shuddered, thinking of what could have happened to her.
"Isn't that... Sasuke's chakra?" asked Jakku. Sakura gulped.
"No," said Tatsumi. "I don't think so."
"Then what the hell is it?!" cried Ruku. Disura shot Tatsumi a questioning look.
"I'm not sure, either," said Sango. "But she's right - that's not his chakra." She sighed and massaged her temples in agitation. "But Naruto may be in much more trouble than we thought."