Chapter Text
It all started because of one careless moment. One moment with a captured leaf shinobi, a moment he exploited out of curiosity.
Had it not been for that, he would have not left, or so he guessed.
It went like this. On a rather unremarkable day, after Sasuke had finished up sparring, landing his opponent of the day in the dirt, when Kabuto had come to collect him. He had spouted something along the lines of how they had a new guest to examine. Meaning they had caught a potential test subject.
It was obvious who they were affiliated to, the anbu tattoo on the man’s shoulder had clued them in. He was to watch Kabuto while he interrogated, and later dissected, the man. But it did not come to this.
Kabuto had examined the man, making him ready for his interrogation, when he opened his mouth to check for a suicide pill in one of the teeth and let out a curse. He wrote something, then made to leave.
“I’ll get Orochimaru-sama he’ll want to interrogate him – make him ready then take your leave for the day,” with that the medic left to get their master.
He got the man ready, fixing his restraints once again, he finished up. But, his interest was piqued. Orochimaru and his devoted, Kabuto, rarely kept the captured for themselves, unless they were of the higher tiers.
Shooting a glance to the clock, he made his decision. He activated his sharingan, and forced the man’s eyes open to forge a better connection.
He hadn’t had many chances, nor reasons, to try this part of the fabled bloodline limit. Supposedly it was a usage of the Sharingan only weaker to a secret technique, the Tsukuyomi, on which he hadn’t found any info. He entered the man’s mind, taking any and all information, so he could review it later.
He saw the man, Genzo, take up the mantle of anbu in some special division, Root. He saw one of the village elder, Shimura, placing a seal on his tongue. He saw different missions, all unsavory even for anbu. He saw through Genzo’s eyes hidden in the shadowed corner of a ceiling how elder Shimura approached his older brother, Itachi. He saw how Root raised children with one another, only to kill what was essentially their sibling to graduate. He saw how Shimura gave Itachi a mission, to kill the Uchiha clan.
He was thrown out of his genjutsu, his head hurting. He could feel how his emotions threatened o take hold. He locked them away, deal with it later, he thought.
He looked to the clock, it seemed sharper, he deactivated his sharingan. Better. And he should still have time. Something dripped to the floor.
It was blood. His blood. It trickled down his cheek. He took a sterile cloth rage to his face, ridding himself of the blood. Blinking to get his lashes oriented again he noticed some wetness at his eyes, tears? He dabbed it away, then hid the cloth in his clothes.
Thoughts running he tried to bring Kabuto’s word back. Yes, he was to take his leave for today. Right.
He took to his rooms, trying his best to show a semblance of his usual undisturbed self. Once he closed the door of his rooms behind himself, he broke down.
The flood of information rushed through his head, rivaling with his emotions for attention. His family, his clan. He felt sadness, long unprocessed grief bubbling up again. Underneath this, he felt anger, confusion, sadness. At his brother. At the village they had been raised in. At the village elder. His head stung again, this time lighter.
He lifted his head from his knees. Pulled in a deep breath, then pushed it out, slowly through the nose. He continued the breathing exercise, until it all ebbed down. Then he locked it away.
Standing up, he grabbed his sword. He let out a breath again, shook his slightly bendy limbs, then went into his first sword kata. Letting his thoughts take a backseat he brought his sole focus on the katas, rotating through them to keep his mind steady.
He had to accommodate for his changed state, in preparation for Orochimaru taking his body he had put the young Uchiha through shit. Poisoning him more often than he could count, to build his resistance. Bending and breaking his limbs in unnatural ways to prepare him. Using a strange technique to give his limbs greater flexibility and to stretch them further. All to make him more similar to the Sannin. Sasuke had already made up his mind about that, and would not let him get so far.
But now he had a new goal. Not to kill his brother, but get answers from him. If he killed him after that could wait to be seen.
His first opportunity of escape had been presented to him when his former team showed up. He still felt some lingering resentment towards their inability to understand, but it had decreased. He saw himself forced to fight Naruto, his brother in all but blood. At the end of their fight had been a small window of possibility, he had almost taken it. But then Orochimaru showed up, taking him, with the help of Kabuto, away.
His second opportunity, was the day he had so dreaded. Orochimarus lifeforce had been waning for weeks, growing weaker evermore. Thus, Sasuke had trained harder than ever. Honing his skill in the blade, and ironing out the kinks in his own alterations of the Chidori. And he fortified his mind, to stand before his brother.
He waited, keeping an eye on the Sannins room, waiting. He continued his meditation. He could feel Kabuto walking in the room, probably talking with Orochimaru. He sometimes went to his masters side. Then he made for the door.
Sasukes eyes shot open now was his chance.
He made towards Orochimarus room as fast as possible, erecting a few blockades on the way, so that Kabuto would not interrupt. Standing in front of the door, he gave himself a moment to breathe. Then raised his arm, and his Chidori spear shot out. Through the door into the room, piercing the older nin in place. He cut down the door, then entered.
He kept feeding chakra into his technique to pin the Sannin in place.
“Orochimaru, I have come to say goodbye, I tire of your presence. You have nothing left to teach me,” he narrowed his eyes as he saw Orochimarus throat working, it didn’t look like he was trying to speak. He pulled his head to the side, cancelling the Chidori while he was at it, then took in what had barely missed his head.
“That’s what is left of you. All that experimenting and hopping bases, and for what? You have prodded and cut up other people, playing with their lives. And yet, all your body hopping has left you as that. An abomination,” he scrutinized the amalgamation of snakes, all writhing, clinging together to support the massive grotesque head of Orochimaru. “Fitting that you would turn yourself into a snake.”
He cut up the snakes that lashed out at him. Then he spit a fireball at the writhing mass. A chunk of snakes fell away dead, having protected the main body.
The hissing synchronized into a scream of the Snake Sannin, “I will get you, Ssssassuke, with your body at my dissspossal the Elemental Nationss will bow to me.”
He cut down more of the snakes, then sheathed his sword, plan B. He shed his upper robe, then focused his energy accessing the power of the curse seal.
The pale snakes rose up, enveloping his body. They writhed against each other to contain him. His air grew damp.
"A snake that crawled on the earth dreamt of soaring through the sky.” His cursemark began coursing it’s energy through his veins.
“Knowing full well it was impossible, still hoping beyond hope, it kept its eye on a baby bird...” he thought back to when he had left the village, he couldn’t say he regrets his decision. Although, maybe he could have handled it differently.
“Never realizing that the snake is now the prey. Because that bird is a hawk ready to take to the sky." His form broke free, ripping apart the snakes with his wings. Painting the room in guts and blood.
He shot forward cutting through the mass of snakes. A sneer came onto his features, “Pathetic, to see you lie there. You had thought yourself so great, but you compare to any run of the mill ninja against the Uchiha clan.”
He thrust his sword downwards, into the body, “You fashioned yourself a researcher of the natural laws, while you merely cut up bodies. Only putting the lives of others on the line. Your stupidity truly knows no bounds.”
A rotting stench rose up; he had only enough time to widen his eyes in surprise then he fell to his knees.
The snake body rose into the air staring him down and gurgling a cry, “Now, you are mine!”
He made eye contact with his sharingan, and the snake struck.
He woke in a damp world of stretching and flexing muscles. Tongues that tried to devour him. Looking around, he could see people, other people Orochimaru had taken over.
“What is this place?”
A distorted laughter echoed through the darkness, and a writhing mass of muscle rose from it, to meet his eyes. “This is the universe inside of me.”
He could now see Orochimarus face in the mass, “This is where the transference ritual takes place,” he grinned. “Shall we begin, Sasuke-kun?”
Pink snakelike muscles sprouted out of the ground and from Sasukes form, enveloping him inside of it.
In response the last of the Uchiha cast a genjutsu over the mass that was Orochimaru, paralyzing him.
But the Sannin persisted, cackling madly he began freeing himself, “And those eyes, those eyes… They’re finally mine!”
But he had underestimated Sasuke. Again. He had thought him lower than Itachi. Again. He had thought to conquer the Uchiha. Again.
Yet, the Sharingan is not something he could fight against, because the Uchiha are the hawk, while Orochimaru is the snake. He is the prey.
Orochimaru began reaching for the form of the Uchiha, they touched. He connected their forms.
Then he sprung his trap. The muscle around Sasuke began blackening rising from Sasuke. They were under his command. Orochimarus eyes turned wide in desperation, his screams distorting his meaningless words while Sasuke turned, and looked at the man with something akin to pity, “Orochimaru, my eyes can see through all your jutsu. Surely you must know this fact already.”
He would not become snake food. He would get his answers. He would get stronger, and he would get his revenge.
With this thought, the blackened mass of muscle devoured the former Sannin.
He rose to his feet again, back inside the room. He threw his head back and closed his eyes. He could feel a slight pain on his shoulder, his cursemark simmered.
Something small and pathetic rose from the ink, flaking it. Sasuke snatched it up, holding it before his eyes.
A small, malformed, white snake.
Hate filled its eyes. He threw it to the ground, and before it could run away he squashed it under his foot. After a ridiculous thought he put some fire chakra through the slime, burning it away.
He swayed slightly.
He pulled his sword out of the cadaver and walked to the door, already hearing Kabuto.
Kabuto stopped, an uncertain expression on his face.
Sasuke did not.
“Which, which one is it?”
Sasuke smirked, “Which one do you think?”
His sword lashed out, he wiped it clean, then sheathed it. The sound of a head hitting the floor was the only disturbance.
He made towards his rooms. He would leave; nothing held him.
He gave a last glance towards the base, he had plundered anything that had seemed important, if the insane Sannin had kept it, maybe it had another use.
He flexed his arm, a seal adorning it. He had the accompanying scroll of the snake summons on his hips; they would be of use to him. He resented Manda, but he had heard of his superior, the White Snake Sage. He hoped he could learn from her.
With a hum, Sasuke channeled earth chakra in his hands, then dropped down and touched the ground, sending out a wave of earth chakra. With a low rumble he could hear the base collapsing in on itself.
With the collapse of the last of Orochimarus power, he felt the last bit of his cursemark flake away, leaving only slightly irritated skin.
Somewhere in Konoha a Kunoichi, a Tokubetsu-Jonin, fell to her knees, she clutched at her neck panting in pain as she felt the last of her former sensei leaving this world.
Through the pain and the worried shouts of civilians and shinobi alike, she could only feel joy at being finally free.
With a grunt she collapsed, and she was quickly brought to the Konoha hospital, where she’d wake up again.
On the other side of the village, Tsunade sent for Jiraiya.
Sasuke looked towards the retreating sun, stained bloodred. He would have to find Itachi to get a straight answer.
The land of hot springs would be his destination; they had enough mercenaries that neither he nor his brother would look out of place. And if he got to soak in the hot springs, who was Sasuke to deny himself this pleasure.