The girl behind me nodded and stepped forward. I watched her go with particular satisfaction.
Up until then, my relaxed—almost downright mocking—attitude toward Orochimaru had let her completely loosen up, so now she could just as completely focus on what was coming.
When Sakura took a stance to move in, the Sannin didn't do a damn thing. But when she rushed him at a straight-up insane speed, to Orochimaru's credit, he didn't freeze. He snapped an arm out toward her, and several thick snakes with open maws shot out of his sleeve.
Sakura—and me along with her—jerked away in opposite directions from the snakes flying at us. Only when I vanished behind the trees, Haruno, in a sharp chain of jumps that even Orochimaru could barely keep track of, got behind him and swung a Wind-chakra-charged hand.
A visible white cutter burst from her palm just a couple meters from the target. But at that exact moment Orochimaru, turning his torso into something like an endlessly stretching snake, shot his upper body up into the air.
The Sannin's body got cut in half, but his upper half snagged on a big branch a good ten meters up. His mouth stretched to unnaturally huge proportions. A horrifying purple chakra washed over the area. And then, with a nasty crunching and wet squelching, a whole Orochimaru crawled out of that maw in yellowish slime. The bloodlust coming off him made it crystal clear: he was pissed as hell about what just happened, and he was trying to scare his opponent with sheer pressure.
Sakura didn't react to the chakra pressure at all, and she didn't release her own either. While the snake was still crawling out, she just held a concentration seal and prepared a technique. And only when Orochimaru got back on his feet did he notice that under and above him hung a whole bunch of water droplets, with little glinting spheres inside them.
One moment—and Orochimaru, on pure instinct, turned his body into hundreds of small white snakes that instantly rushed in all directions, dropping off the branch. Another moment—and the droplets, which apparently held concentrated Wind cores, shot out as hundreds of laser-like lines across the forest, wiping out almost all the snakes. Feeling no resistance, the beams went right through the ground and the trees too, peppering the whole area for hundreds of meters with holes.
Trees started collapsing with loud cracking, smashing into each other and the earth, opening up a patch of sky they'd been hiding.
In the noise of the heavier rain, Sakura checked the epicenter of her last attack and didn't find her enemy. That made her tense up hard, and she started looking around. She was expecting an attack from anywhere, while at the same time concentrating Water chakra in her mouth.
All so that when, after about ten seconds, Orochimaru finally showed himself, she could shoot him with an insanely fast, thin stream that—when she flicked her head—once again cut the Sannin diagonally in half.
Orochimaru was burning a lot of chakra on his techniques, especially the ones that rebuilt his body, and he couldn't keep that pace up for long. But Sakura could pretty clearly see the deserter's urge to kill her right now—an enemy who could mess with his plans later. That's what she was counting on when she prepped the technique in her mouth and waited for him to appear. What Sakura forgot in the heat of a fight against someone above her, though, was that Orochimaru is an experienced, slippery bastard in every sense, and he's got enough sneaky, asshole tricks for a whole lot of maneuvers.
She didn't immediately get why the bisected shinobi's mouth didn't open again to spit out a whole body like before, when something suddenly touched her belly from behind, near her spine. Moving insanely fast, she shifted slightly to the side and up—only to see, in shock, a long sword blade erupt from her insides, stretching out more than ten meters.
A jab of pain punched through Sakura's mind, and, grimacing, she watched as she got straight-up lifted on that blade, which whistled off into the distance. It moved faster than sound, which is why she couldn't track it by sound—well, not that she could've anyway, because the noise of the stream blasting from her own mouth drowned everything out.
Orochimaru, in his real body, watched the blade spear into a distant tree while the clone fell apart into mud. He pulled the decorated hilt out of his mouth—the blade had stretched all the way to that unremarkable spot. A snake's long tongue slid across his lips in satisfaction as he thought that was it, the unexpected splinter was dealt with. But the Sannin's face turned interested when the kunoichi, instead of just blacking out from the pain, or at least slowly bleeding out and dying, grabbed the blade.
Run through completely, she yanked herself along the edge and simply ripped her body free—making the wound way bigger, but getting loose.
Suicidal? flashed through the snake's mind as he watched her drop down toward the fallen trees. With her stomach ripped open, she should die in the next few minutes from blood loss.
Orochimaru jerked the sword back out of the wood, and under his will it quickly shrank back down to a normal hand-and-a-half sword. At the same time, with growing interest, the Sannin watched the kunoichi land and clutch her wound. From it, instead of a flood of blood, not a single drop leaked out—to the snake's surprise—and the wound even started hissing steam like it was regenerating.
"What capabilitiess-s…" Orochimaru muttered, his tongue sliding across his lips again, showing just how hooked he was.
Right then, seeing what was in front of him, the Sannin was torn between grabbing this kunoichi now and studying her clearly unique abilities and genome in his lab later… or putting the Heavenly Seal on her. Like Sasuke. So he'd have influence over her during the attack on Konoha he was planning.
All shinobi chase power one way or another—especially young ones like this specimen—Orochimaru was sure of it. How many had he fooled by dangling strength in front of them? Promise her more power, and there's a good chance she'd betray the Leaf for more strength and authority under the snake's wing. And her genome could be studied later. Of course, the Sannin wouldn't keep her for long anyway—most likely he'd take her body after Sasuke's. But who said he'd tell her that?
Hesitating, Orochimaru still decided to capture her. Right now the pink-haired kunoichi should be weakened from the wound and might not survive the seal. Better to place it under more controlled circumstances. And she could still serve as support after leaving Konoha. If she acted from the inside, she could pull off way more complex operations—but the risk wasn't worth it. Her genome was too interesting, and it wasn't clear how to deal with her after putting the cursed seal on.
Hiruzen, sure, wouldn't kill his own shinobi. But who knows what the ANBU probably already rushing here would do. Those guys aren't exactly friendly or soft-hearted. And this kunoichi isn't from one of the Village's famous founding clans like the Uchiha, and maybe her bloodline hasn't proven itself enough with the masses for operatives to tolerate a potential future traitor. And… the jinchuriki is somewhere around here too, probably waiting for a good moment, and they're not exactly known for being kind by nature. Meaning that blond might kill his own teammate with his own hands.
Quickly running it all through his head, Orochimaru rushed the girl, aiming to injure her more and grab her fast.
Closing in, he lengthened the blade, planning to skewer her again, but she reacted surprisingly fast—formed a couple hand seals and slammed her palm into the fallen tree she was standing on. Instantly, a sphere of water spun up around her from the rain and knocked the blade aside. And right after that, the water blasted outward, and an air battering ram burst from it, smashing into Orochimaru.
Under the heavy elemental pressure, the Sannin's body got dragged like a doll for ten meters, slamming into trees with loud impacts and snapping them. In under a second Orochimaru's body was wrecked—only for a new body to burst out of his maw immediately, his chakra clearly sagging.
"A wounded tiger's still a tiger," Orochimaru might've thought bitterly if he were some kind of cultivator. But right now, still blasting rage through his chakra pressure, he was just cursing his opponent in his head with every insult he knew.
The snake, surviving yet another hit, breathed hard. This too-young kunoichi was pissing him off way beyond her age. He yanked his sword out of the hand of his empty shell and turned back to the girl.
The fight was still going. Sakura, forming a few more hand seals, turned droplets of water into thousands of needles, which instantly started shredding the spot where Orochimaru had stopped, forcing him to quickly sink underground.
After that, with a big—if slightly crooked—jump, she landed on a branch a couple dozen meters up. Her hand touched her stomach, and her face twisted again. Then, nodding to herself, she formed a long series of hand seals, and around her legs, legs of water with long blades began to form.
It was a technique she'd modified: those Water Mantis Arms she'd just used, turned into legs. She'd made it so she could immediately use the long sharpened limbs to jump and bolt off into the distance.
For about fifteen seconds, Sakura just ran from Orochimaru while he chased her underground, at least according to my sphere-sight.
"Retreating?" I asked, quickly catching up and jumping alongside her. From the side, her long water legs looked pretty damn funny, launching her far ahead with rare pushes.
"Temporarily," she said. "Mobility will be back in a couple minutes."
"Good call," I nodded approvingly. "But pointless now."
After my words, under Sakura's confused look, people in ANBU masks pulled level with us through the wind noise.
We all stopped, and the mask-wearers stared at me like they were waiting.
"Orochimaru spotted you and left," I said. "So you can leave too."
They started exchanging awkward glances.
"Yeah, yeah, all of you. Shoo." I waved my hand. "We've got a Chunin Exam here, don't get in the way. What if they count you as outside help and we don't get promoted?"
One of the masked guys stepped forward, looking skeptical as hell, like he wanted to say something—but in the end he changed his mind. He nodded, and the ANBU left.
"Let me just do it faster," I said when we were alone. I walked up to Sakura, put my hand on her stomach, and in a few seconds healed the nasty wound.
"Thanks," she said, nodding gratefully when it was over.
"Sure. You did really damn well!" I said. "Of course, not without mistakes… a lot of them. But the main thing is the end result. Still, tell me: why didn't you use a Clone-and-Substitution combo?"
Sakura went quiet and looked incredibly awkward. It was obvious she could've gotten away with a serious, but only through-and-through wound, which would've bothered her way less and healed faster. Instead, she, showing off… toughness? dragged the blade out literally through her side.
After that I picked apart another couple dozen mistakes—less noticeable, but important—and she started looking downright mega-awkward.
"Still, experience is built on mistakes," I finished in an encouraging tone. "Even if your path's only just started, you felt for real how high your level is. A legendary shinobi could've died by your hand several times today. And now that you understand his battle "handwriting" even better, your chances in the next fight only go up. Sakura, you've grown a lot, and you'll get way better. And I'm really proud of you."
After my words, her mood became not just awkward, but seriously embarrassed. Still, I saw her shoulders straighten just a little.
Her path and effort now showed, in real life, that they actually meant something. She clearly got more confident, and the gratitude in her eyes toward me became even deeper.
Sakura didn't find words to say back. But her expression said everything that needed saying.
And after that, we… No, we didn't go to the Forest of Death tower. Sakura went for a walk through the forest itself, to see how our former classmates were doing, while I personally went to the lab to see what the clones had dug up.
The data turned out… not very clear.
The cursed seal is tied pretty hard to how senjutsu works, and I don't know that stuff that well. And there wasn't much data on that art at all, so there wasn't much to study. Natural energy is powerful, but dangerous. And usually only a tiny number of people—literally, a handful on the whole planet—can master it, so it's not surprising the info is scarce.
Still, I managed to understand the gist and almost all the operating principles of the Heavenly Seal. And I also figured I could remove a certain piece of it—something that, in my opinion, is basically a vestigial bit.
With that data, I woke the Uchiha on the same cot where not that long ago I'd treated Guy too.
"How'd you sleep?" I asked bluntly from beside him, and Sasuke, opening his eyes, immediately grabbed his neck where the Juin was.
"…Fine," he said, almost surprised.
"What's the last thing you remember?"
"A fight with some shinobi. A bite. Darkness."
"Got it. Well, I've got good news for you!" I said, cheerfully raising my hands like I was congratulating him on a holiday. "You ran into Orochimaru, one of the three legendary ninja of the Leaf! And not just ran into him—you were lucky enough to clash with him and somehow survive. But your luck didn't end there! A kind Uncle Snake gifted you his cursed seal, and you were lucky enough to survive the installation too! Thing is, from this point on it's not so good for you anymore… Interested?"
I blinked innocently and lowered my hands.
From the start of the talk, little sparks of understanding started showing up in the Uchiha's gaze. Now his emotions shifted from confusion to worry, and then—after he realized who exactly he'd run into—to a very tense anticipation of what they'd shoved into him.
Sasuke knew perfectly well what a cursed seal was and that they're used first and foremost to control people. So no, positive expectations didn't even crawl into his head.
"So," I said. "If we really simplify it: this Juin, like any other, you can instinctively release to different degrees, and also suppress. It's based on a really damn cool genome that will absorb natural energy instead of you. First, the pros. The more of your body the released seal covers, the more chakra it absorbs and crams into you. That gives a serious boost to your body—speed, strength—and also your techniques. If you learn to use it properly, the effect gets straight-up multiplied."
After that, Sasuke looked surprised, even thoughtful. But he still asked, "What are the cons?"
"The first and most obvious: not every body can handle absorbing sen-chakra. The fact you survived is big luck. Or rather, anyone can handle it—but only to a certain extent. Figuring out that extent isn't the seal's job, it's the job of a crooked kekkei genkai. It tuned itself to you, and now even if you absorb too much sen-chakra, that leads to the second con. And even if your chakra power grows, the limit will follow it. But this genome isn't perfect. The excess sen-chakra that would turn you to stone, it converts into aggressive Yin, which lets you live, but also makes you go berserk. And besides that, sen-chakra consumes your chakra, so the boost isn't eternal. You drain yourself—you die anyway. And now… ready for the biggest con?"
The Uchiha, already not in the best mood, nodded uncertainly.
"There's a piece of Orochimaru's consciousness in the seal!" I said. "And while you use the seal, you'll be going insane! Your personality will dissolve under Orochimaru's Yin! Your values will crumble. Your goals will become nothing. Only the desire to obey Orochimaru will become your main landmark, and the center of the world!"
Sasuke opened his mouth, and despair started crawling over his still-aristocratic face.
Still, soon I cheered him up.
"Of course, for you specifically, you'd need to use the seal a whole damn lot for that," I said. "For years. But yeah, in general, that's the result."
"Uh…" Sasuke stumbled. "Can this be… fixed somehow?"
And he stared at me with hope. Nothing surprising—because I was always above him, better, so I could know what he didn't.
"It can," I said, nodding properly. "But for now—partially. Removing Orochimaru's consciousness isn't a problem. I checked the Juin, and that Sannin tied a lot of it to himself. But I can retie stuff way worse than that, and set it up so everything's fine. We'll just shift those processes onto your own Yin—then it'll even be easier for you to activate and suppress it. As for the berserk thing from excess sen-chakra… that's a problem, but you, fuck, got lucky again. Because unlike the carriers of that genome, by controlling the Juin, you control how much sen-chakra gets absorbed. And as long as it's not too much, with practice you'll be able to keep yourself in your hands."
After my explanation Sasuke thought. Like, really thought. His face went shadowed. His fingertips twitched. And then, about ten seconds later, with a loud exhale, he turned his head to me and… asked:
"Could you do it… for me? Remove Orochimaru's consciousness."
A grin appeared on my face. "And what can you offer me for it?"
"I…" He opened his mouth and froze.
Suddenly Sasuke's eyes widened as he realized that, yeah, he's the heir of a clan and all that, but basically a bum. Uzumaki has money, and Sasuke doesn't have, like, a whole lot more. And services like that usually aren't done for cash. Selling off clan techniques… does he even need them? I mean, I specialized in fuinjutsu and medical ninjutsu, not Fire Release and genjutsu. Or… do I still need them?
There was also the option of asking the village for help. But unlike me, Sasuke wasn't on that kind of close terms with the local bosses. And in general, considering what I'd already pulled—like using Hiraishin, an S-rank technique—there was a really good chance I actually could remove the Juin of an S-rank missing-nin. While the village… Sasuke, even when he was little, still felt the villagers' contempt toward his clan, and because of that he didn't really trust them. Plus the thought that the Leaf could demand way more than I would just kept pushing into his head.
On that last one, if Hiruzen could hear Sasuke's thoughts, he'd laugh himself sick. But overall Sasuke's logic was sound.
"I… can offer you access to the clan library," Sasuke finally said. "But with one condition."
"Oh…" I said, surprised. "Selling secret knowledge that generations of your ancestors spilled other people's—and, more importantly, their own—blood for is… immoral. What's the condition?"
"You mustn't spread that knowledge."
"No."
"…No?" Sasuke blinked.
"Exactly," I said. "I'm not going to clutch every fact just to 'stay the best of the best.' I don't need it, and it's actually harmful. It would only get in the way of humanity's future progress. I'm planning something like taking over the world, and there are a lot of smart people besides me. With that condition I'd just be tying my own hands if I ever wanted to turn that knowledge into something bigger. Even if it's far in the future. And as for your payment—that's not enough. But fine, since you're my worst, but technically still a teammate, I'll give you a discount, and besides the library I'll demand just one favor in the future. Deal?"
Sasuke's face twitched. It felt like they were about to screw him. So hard that when he gets screwed here, his ancestors in the afterlife will run him through the circle again. But… revenge.
"If the favor won't be connected to Itachi," he said, "I agree."
"Do whatever you want with your brother. Deal." Instead of a handshake, I smacked him on the top of the head.
Sasuke shot me an unhappy look.
"And don't look at me like that," I said. "By the way, I'll make you happy: the Juin has two stages. The second gives an even bigger boost because it absorbs more sen-chakra. And it'll cause some metamorphoses too. But your body isn't ready for that—you'll die. For now, get used to the first stage. Let your body learn to work with more sen-chakra and resist it. Do it gradually. And eat a lot, and sleep, so you recover. Like during training."
This time Sasuke's face turned thoughtful, and then he nodded seriously.
A few minutes of my work, and everything extra was removed from Sasuke's Juin.
And only after we dealt with the most important thing did we move to the practical questions.
"Naruto, so… where are we?" he asked, looking around, confused, and I smirked.
I just said, in short, "At my place," and then teleported us into the Forest of Death, near Sakura. After that, we headed for the tower together.
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