Naruto : Venom

Entrance to The Base, Five Minutes Ago

"Kabuto, what are the odds of Alvarcus being with them?" Orochimaru is impatiently waiting at the gates. "I gave the Sound Four explicit instructions to seek him out as well."

"They're slim." Kabuto idly says from the shadows. "They would be slimmer if I didn't cut his ties to the Leaf for you."

Orochimaru narrows his eyes. "You're lucky you're useful still. I never ordered that. You went against the plan. You caused my child pain, and maybe even turned him against me forever. He was much more hostile the last time we met. He even threatened to kill me!" Orochimaru smiles to himself. "I'm strangely proud of him, he's growing up so fast."

"Yes, but I did it for you." Kabuto daintily pushes his glasses up his nose. "If I let his parents and useless teammate live then you wouldn't get what you want until much later. I sped up the process so you can finally obtain 'your child.'" He says the final two words with no small amount of hate.

"Careful Kabuto. Even you are replaceable and I'm always needing more test subjects."

"Of course, Orochimaru-sama. I'm here to complete whatever task you give me." Kabuto bows slightly.

"Remain in the shadows." He dismisses him with a lazy wave of the hand. "I'll call you if I need you."

They fall into a tense silence for a few minutes.

The Sound Four, Kimimaro, Alvarcus and the still sealed Sasuke burst into the entrance of the base.

"Oh how wonderful!" We're greeted by Orochimaru himself. "I was confident I could sway Sasuke to come to me, but to get Alvarcus as well! This is such a pleasant surprise. I knew you would come to me eventually, I just didn't expect it to be so soon. Tell me child," I shiver, "what made you come to me?" He leans forward in anticipation of my response. "Was it the promise of power? Perhaps your thirst for knowledge?"

"Sasuke did." That is all I say.

Orochimaru's eyes light up. "Sasuke convinced you? Marvelous, simply marvelous. You must tell me more later. For now, rest. Then we shall talk at length. Perhaps over dinner? I find conversation to be much more pleasant with food."

"I will wait for Sasuke to be unsealed. Then we can both tell you our reasons for coming. Might I suggest steak for dinner?" Oh Kami, I'm playing nice with Orochimaru of all people. "I know that I want to bite into something meaty after today. Oh, a BBQ! That could be good too."

Orochimaru laughs his evil laugh. "Kukukuku, why not both? Today is a day for celebration! It isn't everyday I get two new pupils. You should have a nice meal before the hell I am about to put you through. Once I am done, you'll be lucky if you can raise a glass of water off a table."

I smirk. "That'll never happen. You gave me the Jiongu, remember? It replaced my muscles."

"And?" Orochimaru prods me to continue. "I haven't been able to study a host of the Jiongu for long, the host usually died before I could make any real headway."

"The Jiongu doesn't get tired. I can run for days, literally. I've done it before. The only fatigue I have to worry about is all mental."

Orochimaru eyes me up and down. I feel violated. "Oh I can't wait to see what makes you tick! The things I could learn from you about the Jiongu alone! Not to mention what else you must know."

I wince. This is going to be tricky. "I don't have what you think I do." Orochimaru stills. "Now, before you freak out and do something rash, I still have knowledge of things you've never heard of before. It just isn't what you expected."

"Explain, I am curious." He doesn't look mad, I could be okay. "I was confident you knew of past civilizations and I was hopeful you might have a forgotten jutsu or two. What can you offer?"

Might as well use the big guns first. "I know a language that doesn't exist today. I'm fluent, I can also both read and write in it. It is technically my first language." Orochimaru grins like a maniac. Whoops, tautology. "When you say I'm from an ancient civilization, you might be right. The world I know of as the Before is nothing like this one. The continents don't match up either. I could be from eons in the past."

Orochimaru lovingly put his hand on my shoulder. "Alvarcus, that is so much more than I expected. You simply must teach me about this world!"

"Orochimaru-sama, did I do well?" Kimimaro asks with a great deal of effort.

"Of course you did. You always have." Orochimaru distractedly says. He hasn't looked away from me at all, he's still analyzing me like I'm the world's best puzzle.

"Thank you." Kimimaro falls over dead.

"I was wondering when that would happen. Kabuto, could you get him to cold storage? I'm sure we can find a use for his corpse."

Kabuto walks out of the shadows and seals Kimimaro into a body scroll. "Of course Orochimaru-sama, shall I prep the lab as well?" He eyes me like a piece of meat. "We do have a new specimen we can study."

I know that voice, it causes warning flags to pop up in my head. It isn't just for who he is, he did something. That voice did something, something terrible but I can't place it exactly. It extends past what I know he could become, it's something more. What did Kabuto do to me? I don't recall him ever being truly on my bad side before.

"No, this one is not for study." Orochimaru tells Kabuto the best news I could possibly hear. "This one is going to be taught and made into one of my best shinobi. Maybe even better than you."

Kabuto smiles. "Unless he dies during training." I hope that isn't common. I can probably take it. Sasuke withstood it during cannon, so it can't be that challenging. Unless Orochimaru rigged it so his precious next body wouldn't die on him, which is something I can see him doing.

Why does Kabuto's voice unsettle me so much? It bothers me more than Orochimaru's and I hate Orochimaru.

Before I can really start to figure out why, the barrel that Sasuke is sealed into starts to vibrate.

"Here we go!" Orochimaru gleefully calls out. "Fair warning, he will be quite... ravenous for a while after unsealing. He may attack anyone and everyone."

The top unseals itself with a loud hiss. Black fog pours out over the edges and pools on the floor. Sasuke slowly stands up and steps out of the barrel, he's covered in the first level of the curse seal. It looks like his body is covered in tattoos.

"I feel good. Really good. Like I've dropped a huge weight I didn't know I was carrying."

"You alright there Sasuke?" I call out to him. He turns to me and grins evilly.

"Alright? I'm better than alright! I'm amazing! I feel like I could defeat you easily now!" He gets a mad gleam in his eyes. "Want to spar?" He starts walking towards me. "Come on, I need to figure out what I can do. Who better to push my limits than you?"

"Of course you two can spar!" Orochimaru chimes in. "Just not here, we have places meant for sparring. The entrance to my base is not one of them. If you would both follow me." He starts walking deeper into the base.

"Alvarcus, was that Orochimaru?" Sasuke sounds baffled. He reverted out of the first level of the curse seal because he was so surprised.

"Yep. We're already in Sound. You slept through the whole trip." I hear a few chuckles from the Sound Four behind Sasuke and me. "Well come on, if you want your ass kicked who am I to stop you?" I taunt Sasuke.

He grins. "I'll be doing the ass kicking, thank you." We take off after Orochimaru with the Sound Four right behind us.

...

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