NOVEL NEXT Chapter 29: Chapter 29
"Alvarcus something is wrong." Sasuke's voice rouses me from my sleep.
I push myself up from my rocky mattress. I miss my bed. Hell I miss a bed, the ground is very unforgiving. At this point I'd be happy with straw. "What's wrong? Is there another dumbass at our door? Cuz I definitely remember killing the last one to do that."
"No, it's not that. Gina isn't here." Sasuke's tone is deadly serious.
Warning flags pop up in my mind. Gina never goes off on her own. She usually sticks around me, and if she isn't by me she's close to Sasuke. The entire time we've been down here she's never once gone off by herself. I don't blame her either, out of all three of us she's the one that the rest of the things down here stare at. They see her as the weak link, the vulnerable one.
They're not wrong. She can't defend herself anywhere near as well as we can.
"Let's go find her." I grimly say as I stride out of our cave. "And if she isn't perfectly fine, we're going to have a little slaughter."
"Good. I could always go for a slaughter." Sasuke falls in step beside me.
"Jiongu, do you sense her?"
~No. There are too many affinities down here, I'm not familiar enough with hers to pick it out of all of them.~
"Fuck. I don't see her. Do you?" I ask my friend.
"No." He darkly says.
"GINA!" I roar into the pit. I strain my Jiongu enhanced hearing to it's limit.
Very faintly I hear something I hoped I wouldn't. "Alv-"
"Shut it whore. You should know better than to talk."
"I know where she is." I take off towards her faint voice. "Someone has her. They die today."
"Agreed." Fury is laced in Sasuke's tone.
We run in a heated silence for twenty seconds before we see her.
She's tied to rock pillar with what looks like rope made from someone's entrails. Surrounding her are eight different experiments while a ninth is holding a razor sharp claw to her throat. I vaguely recognize each one of them, Sasuke and I beat all of them on our first day down here. Each of them has a wicked gleam in their eyes. They think they have power over us now.
They couldn't be more wrong.
"Hello, SSSasssuke and Alvarcusss." Apodora, the snake man that attacked us in the first moments we landed in this hell hole slithers out. Guess I was wrong on my count, there's ten of them.
"Apodora, I never wanted to see your ugly face again." I spit in his direction. "What kind of a person hides behind a hostage?"
"Only cowards." Sasuke growls out.
"Only the sssmart." Apodora hisses out. "I am not an idiot, I know that even with the help of the othersss here you ssstill are a threat, I know that you could beat all of usss." He smiles a eerily familiar grin, it reminds me of Orochimaru. "But, with her here, you won't fight back. You value her, you want to protect her." Apodora slithers over to Gina and tenderly runs a scaled finger down her face.
She whimpers under his touch.
"I underssstand it, ssshe'sss quite the ssspecimen. Sssimply beautiful, and ssshe usssed to be mine." He turns a glare onto Sasuke and me. "You two took her from me. Not only that, you two humiliated me. Neither of you sssaw fit to kill me, like I wasssn't a challenge. Like I wasssn't worth your time."
He rears up to his full height. "Tell me now! Am I worthy of your time now!"
"You? Never. But she is." I growl out through clenched teeth. He's dying today. He's dying violently today and I think I'm going to enjoy every moment of it. "You wanted our attention. You certainly have it now."
"You certainly do. In fact, you're reminding me of someone we've met before. An Aoi. You do remember Aoi, don't you Alvarcus?" Sasuke pointedly says to me. Oh you brilliant boy! That's a wonderful idea. I even have the right amount too.
"Thisss Aoi sssoundsss like a sssmart perssson." Apodora preens under what he thinks is praise. "Now, I'm a reasonable man. I only have a few requessstsss."
"And they would be?" I force myself to ask. I need to stall for a little if I want Sasuke's plan to work.
"Firssst, ssshe'sss mine." Apodora lovingly pats Gina on the head. "You two will leave her alone, ssshe isss no longer your concern. Sssecond, you will not harm anyone here. Third, you will come to our aid if we asssk you too." He grins in victory. He thinks he has won. Even his minions are more relaxed. They all think they've beaten us.
They couldn't be more wrong.
"Yeah, there's a few problems with that." I sassily say. "For the first one, Gina isn't anyone's. She chooses what to do for herself. For the third, there's no way in hell I'm going to defend someone like you. Really? This is your grand plan? To kidnap Gina and try to blackmail us into helping you? That's really stupid."
"And as for the second." Sasuke takes up talking. "I can agree to that one. We're not going to hurt you. No, we're going to kill you. Alvarcus, pull."
I yank my two hands away from Apodora and his goons. Nine heads topple to the ground, quickly followed by the dull thuds of nine bodies. I did exactly what I did to Aoi, I wrapped a chakra string around each of their necks. Then I made them into windblades and did as Sasuke ordered, I pulled.
It's a very messy way to go. The pure amount of blood that leaves the body from a beheading is remarkable, and here I just did it to nine people. It's horrendously beautiful.
"But- but how!" Apodora recoils away from Sasuke and I. "I watched you! Neither of you did anything! How did you kill them?"
"He's just that good." Sasuke grins his own evil grin. He stalks froward to the terrified snake man. "Now, you get to see how good I am."
Apodora quickly slithers over to Gina and bares his fangs against her throat. "SSStop! If you value her life you will leave!"
Sasuke stills. "Look me in the eyes and tell me that."
Apodora meets Sasuke's crimson gaze. "If you value her life you will- when did your eyesss turn red? What isss that! What did you do-" Apodora chokes on his words and screams like an animal being skinned alive.
"What isss that? No! Stay away from me! Keep it away! Call it off! Call it off!" He slithers away from the bound Gina with terror emblazoned on his face. "I sssaid call it off! Oh Kami no it'sss inssside me! It'sss inssside me!"
Apodora does the unthinkable, he starts clawing at his own tail. He's shredding through his scales and tearing into his own flesh. Soon his blood mixes with the rest of his minions, but he doesn't stop at his tail. He's screaming his head off about something crawling in him, about something inside him. He's slowly clawing up all of his own body, he's moved up to his stomach.
"No! Take it out! Take it out!" He screams in pure fear. He digs deeper into his own gut and soon he's spilling out his own organs. "I sssaid... take it... out..."
With a wet slap Apodora falls over into a pool of his own blood and entrails. He killed himself.
"Sasuke, not that I don't approve, but what the hell was that?" I ask as I sprint over to Gina and start untying her.
Sasuke is beside me and helping untie her in moments. "A genjutsu that I've never actually used before. Honestly I'm surprised it worked so well, the only downside is I have to constantly keep reapplying it since the target causes themselves a lot of pain. It's something I came up with on my own." He gives up on a stubborn knot and picks up a sharp rock from the ground and starts cutting through the remaining makeshift rope. "Well, I sort of came up with it on my own. You helped."
"How did I possibly help with that?" What is he talking about? I've never done that kind of damage to anyone. Well, there was the Suna nin but he wasn't there to see that.
"I based it off of what I saw when you got the Jiongu." He quietly says. "You two even reacted the same way."
"Uh... pretty sure I didn't claw myself to death." How many times did they wrap this rope around Gina? This is overkill to the extreme.
"No, but that's not for lack of trying." Sasuke sounds sad. He's remembering it. "You were too exhausted to do any actual damage. But that wasn't the only similarity. You both kept repeating 'take it out' over and over."
"I... I never knew that." I look at Sasuke. He's bitter right now, and I don't think most of it is because we had to save Gina. "If that genjutsu bothers you, you don't have to use it. I know that I don't want to remember that day."
"Depends. I won't ignore a tool just because it makes me squeamish." He cuts away the last of the rope. "Finally."
Instantly we're tackled to the ground in a firm hug. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" I can feel wetness on my shoulder. Gina's crying. "Gina thought she had to go back. Gina never wants to go back."
"Don't worry Gina, you don't have to." Sasuke calmly says.
"Yeah, you have us to look out for you." I merrily add. "Although, next time don't tackle hug us into a puddle of blood, alright? It's gross."
She let's out a small laugh. "Gina promises nothing!"
Two Weeks Since Entering the Pit
"You know, it really isn't that bad down here once we have the other experiments trained." I casually say to Sasuke and Gina as we stroll over to the waiting table of food. It's completely untouched but it has been down here for over twenty minutes.
"It does make things much easier. I'm surprised that it took a week to train them to not touch the food until we ate." Sasuke adds as all three of us sit down to enjoy our meal.
"I thought it would take longer." I remark as I pour myself a glass of chilled milk and grab some toast. Even down here I can still find solitude in my usual breakfast food. "Pain is one hell of a motivator."
"Gina is happy! She's never been able to eat so well!" She excitedly starts to pile a mountain of food on her plate. The girl can eat.
"Well that makes one of us." Sasuke drearily says. "I still remember what good food is."
"I do too, but I mean come on! What we've done is impressive!" I take a hearty gulp of my milk. "Besides, as long as I can have something that reminds me of topside I'll be alright."
~Host! Don't let them eat! It's poisoned!~
"Sasuke Gina stop!" I order with the utmost urgency.
"Damn, I wanted to get all of you in one go." A sultry voice I've never heard before calmly says from behind me. It's walking up to the table. "Oh well, I can work with just one of you." The owner of the voice plops down right next to me.
How bold.
I get a good look at the voice's owner. It isn't an it, but a she. She's a figure of pure grace, easily rivaling Sasuke's elegant movement. She has a shockingly black segmented tail that extends out of the base of her spine and arcs gracefully over her head. There's a vicious looking stinger on the end that is a bright white in contrast to the rest of the tail. Upon closer observation I can tell that she isn't actually wearing clothes, rather she's covered by some form of a carapace or armor that matches the black of her tail.
"Hold up." I cut in. "Are you supposed to be a scorpion?"
She tenderly drapes herself across my shoulders. "How observant! Not only did you recognize that there was a poison in the food, but you deduced my species as well! Not everyone can do that, consider me impressed." She grins maliciously at Sasuke and Gina. "Now, your friend here," She gives me a loving pat on the chest, "is full of my most potent poison. Only I posses the antidote."
"That's nice." Sasuke says with disinterest. He's poking at his food with a depressed look about him. "I was hungry too."
"I only have a few terms if you want him to live." She starts to stroke my cheek with the back of her thankfully still human hands. If they were pincers I would be freaking out. "Nothing too major really."
"Do go on." Sasuke says in his still disinterested tone. This time he's suspiciously looking at his water. "I'm simply riveted. And thirsty."
"I wish to be taken under your wing, so to speak." The scorpion lady eloquently speaks. "I seek your protection. I offer my expertise at poisons, obviously you all need that. After all," she pats my head again, "he had to ingest it to figure out it was poisoned. How are you by the way? Usually there's twitching by now."
"Just peachy, thanks for asking." I casually reply. "And yourself?"
"I am quite well! Observant and polite! Such a rarity down here." She turns both her and my head to look at me better. "You have such a lovely skin color, I haven't seen anything this delicate in a long time."
"Can't say the same about you." I lazily swat at her hand that's holding onto my face. "Although I am curious about something about you."
"Do ask, it's only fair that I answer. You are about to die after all." She says with false concern. "Unless... your friends decide to save you. All they have to do is agree to my terms."
"Goodie!" I chirp out. "What color is your blood?"
She blanches away from me. "It's... it's red. Why would you ask that?" She looks me up and down. "Why can you ask that? You should be nothing more than a spasming mess on the floor right now. Usually there's a lot of drooling, then coughing up blood, then they eyes roll back and then death."
"Well that's boring." I wrap my arm around her waist, trapping her next to me. "Red gets repetitive after you kill so many creatures. I was hoping for a blue or even a green. Something to break up the monotony."
"What are you?" She asks with her first hint of fear.
"Excellent question. For starters, I'm immune to poisons." She goes ramrod straight in my grasp. "And after that... well I really don't know anymore."
Sasuke is idly rolling an apple back and forth. "Did she poison all the food or just the milk and toast?"
"Gina hopes it was just the milk and toast." She frowns at her teeming plate of food. "Waste of food."
"Anyways, you've made an attempt on my life." I start to squeeze her.
Her face contorts in mild pain. "You must see reason. It was the only way to prove I could be useful."
"Or... I don't know... you could have talked to us?" I apply more pressure to her, there's an audible groan as her carapace endures the stress. "We don't kill those who simply wish to talk. It's those who threaten us, those who demand from us, those who try to trick us."
"Release me!" She demands as she darts her tail at my neck. I casually slap it away with my free arm. "Release me this instant!"
I don't. I squeeze even harder.
CRACK
"You should have talked with us. You shouldn't have poisoned me. But your biggest mistake was attempting to gain our attention through questionable means. You have it now, and this is your reward."
"LET ME GO!" She is trying everything to get free. She's beating me with her fists, she's trying to spear me with her tail, she's squirming. Nothing is working.
"Did you poison anything else or was it just the milk?" I ask in a level voice.
"Just the milk!" She instantly answers in a misguided hope that it will ease her pain. "Usually all three of you drink it! I can only make so much poison, it was the best option for me if I wanted to get all three of you!"
"That's good to know." Sasuke says as he takes a bite of the apple.
"Gina could fix it anyways." She says as she digs into her food. "Just not for herself. Medical jutsu is hard for Gina to use on Gina." That's good to know.
"Please let me go now!" The scorpion lady begs me. "I answered your question! I'll leave you alone! You'll never see me agai-"
CRUNCH
"Really?" Sasuke says with a great amount of disdain. "You couldn't have angled that better? You got her blood all over the food."
"Oh gross!" I stand up and start trying to wipe myself down. "That was a terrible idea! Gross gross gross I have her all over me! Who cares about the damn food! I'm covered in bits and pieces that aren't supposed to be on me!"
Sasuke rolls his eyes as he moves to the far end of the table that's not covered in blood and guts. Gina follows him. "How did you not know that would happen? You crushed her right next to you!"
"Gina expected a pop not a crunch." She helpfully adds on. "It would have been funny if there was a crackle."
"How are you two so calm! I'm covered in guts!" I shout at my seemingly indifferent company.
"Please, this isn't the first time." Sasuke waves me away. "Go clean up in the waterfall."
"But it's so cold!" I whine. That water is freezing, but it is also the only thing we have to stay clean.
"That's what you get for killing her like that. Serves you right."
Three Weeks Since Entering the Pit
I'm roused from my sleep by something very unusual. I really hope this doesn't become a trend, I like my sleep. I don't get anywhere near enough of it.
Fortunately it isn't Sasuke kicking me that woke me up. Neither is it Gina happily jumping on me while rambling about what she wants for breakfast. No, it's something much different.
"CHIDORI!" Sasuke yells.
"Huh?" I groggily raise my head up from my rocky pillow. "Something the matter?"
"Nothing, go back to sleep." Sasuke quietly says.
"Then why is your hand bloody? And where did that body come from?" There's a furry mound in the entrance to our cave.
"Oh, that." Sasuke moves his hand behind his back. "Assassins. I handled it. He made it the farthest."
I plop my head back down. "Ow. Why did I do that? This is rock. Anyways, what's that put the count at?"
After a moment of recollection Sasuke replies, "This makes thirteen attempts so far."
"Wow, I didn't know we were getting that high. It's only been three weeks!" Damn. That's over four a week.
"Alvarcus go back to sleep. We can talk more once breakfast is here."
"Yeah yeah fine. But I expect that mess to be cleaned up by then." I gesture to the furry corpse.
Two Months Since Entering the Pit
"The food is here." Sasuke calls into our residence. We've taken one of the bigger caves for ourselves, the previous owners didn't like that. They're dead now.
"Gina hopes there is pork!" She happily bounces out of our cave towards the delivered food.
She's the only one who approaches it, everyone else knows better. Sasuke and I have trained the others to wait until we eat. They can have what's left. We've eaten quite well these two months.
There is one oddity with today though, there is already someone else at the table.
"About damn time you came to get us!" I shout at the person at the table. "It's been months I tell you! Months!"
"Kukukuku, I knew that you were good, but to actually have the experiments trained to not eat until you have? To the point that they don't touch the food for hours after it arrives? I am impressed." Orochimaru is back, he's here to take us up topside again.
"It only took a week. Pain is a great motivator." Sasuke gracefully sits down at the table of food and starts eating.
I plop down next to Sasuke and grab a chicken leg. "It would have taken less time, but I didn't want to really scare everyone. I kept my hearts close." For the two months we were down here I didn't use one heart monster and Sasuke barely used his Sharingan.
Orochimaru loads himself up a plate. "How did you deal with attempts on your life?"
"Violently." I respond.
"How many experiments are left?" He casually asks.
"One hundred and twenty three." Sasuke replies between bites.
"Really?" Orochimaru questions. "There was two hundred and fourteen when I sent you two down."
I whistle appreciatively. "Finally got Sasuke's kill count in the double digits then. Oi, you need to clear something up for us."
Orochimaru raises an eyebrow. Kami that is a weird look. "Oh? And what would that be?"
I boldly stare him straight into his yellow eyes. "Did you or did you not push me down here after I pushed Sasuke down?"
"... I don't recall doing that." Orochimaru takes a drink of what looks like orange juice. I've never seen it down here before, he probably had it delivered just for himself to drink. "I'm sure if I did, it would be one of my more... fond memories."
"I knew you were lying." Sasuke smugly says.
"Orochimaru not cool bro!" Killing intent floods the underground chamber. I overstepped my place. "Sorry, Orochimaru-sama it is very unfortunate that you seem to have forgotten such a fond moment we shared." I am never calling him bro ever again. I doubt I'd live through a second time.
The killing intent vanishes. "That's better. I may tolerate some things, but you will always refer to me with respect."
"Of course." I give a little head bow. Mental note: don't ever call him just Orochimaru, always call him Orochimaru-sama. Or my spy gig will be over before it really starts.
Orochimaru bites into a piece of bread. "And who is this?"
"Gina is Gina!" Gina happily introduces herself. Does she not remember that this is the person who made her into a succubus look-a-like? "They protect me and I heal them!"
Guess not. Oh well, that is probably for the best. Imagine if she tried to attack him or something. "She's simple. Give her food and a safe place to sleep and she's happy. It helped that she knows medical jutsu, she patched Sasuke up a few times."
"Us." Sasuke corrects.
Gina nods her head vigorously.
"Interesting." Orochimaru says. "Well now that we've ate, shall we go back to the top? It is always so dreary when I come down here. I would install a skylight, but I don't want to distract from the dark and cold ambiance. It wouldn't be the same."
"Sure." I shrug while ignoring that bit about a skylight. I think that my selective hearing will get very good around Orochimaru. "Nothing down here worth packing, I'm good to go." I turn to Sasuke.
"I'm ready." He adds.
"Gina is ready!"
Orochimaru smiles sadistically. "Oh, you poor poor thing. You aren't coming with us."
Sasuke and I tense. We've grown attached to Gina and her strange bubbliness.
"Why not?" Sasuke asks.
"Sasuke," Orochimaru says like he's teaching a four year old, "she's a failed experiment. Why would I bring her with us?"
"She knows medical jutsu. She can be useful." He reasons.
"Kabuto is better." Orochimaru retorts quickly with a gleeful smile. He's enjoying this. The bastard.
Sasuke and Orochimaru go back and forth for a bit. I tune them out. I'm focusing on the growing crowd around us. News has spread that we're leaving. Even worse, news has spread that Gina isn't. I can tell already there are plans being formed, plans that end in her gruesome death. I guess being overlords does have its downsides, when you leave the people rebel against what was yours.
"Alvarcus, back me up on this. We can't let her stay down here." Sasuke pleads with me.
I make eye contact with Orochimaru. "What can we offer for you to bring her with us?"
"Nothing. There is nothing you have that I don't already have access to." He says with a mad gleam in his eyes.
"Nothing we can do?" I question further. "Not a crazy mission or training program we can submit to? What if I'm willing to part with a piece of the Jiongu?"
~Host how could you? I am not something to barter.~
"I've already studied it, the only thing left to study about the Jiongu is how it interacts with a host. There is nothing you can offer me." He assures me. "She is down here for a reason. Here she will stay."
She's going to die. "Gina. Say goodbye to Sasuke. We're leaving."
"Okay!" She happily hops over to Sasuke and envelopes him in a hug. "Bye-bye Sasuke!"
Sasuke and I make eye contact over her shoulder. He has come to the same conclusion as me, Gina is going to die today. Violently. Because of us.
Sasuke hugs her back. "Good bye Gina."
She releases Sasuke and hops over to me. She throws her arms around me. "Bye-bye Alvarcus!"
"Bye Gina. I'll miss you." I sincerely tell her.
"Oh, and by the way, thanks for saying I'm hot. And saving me. And well... thanks for treating me like a person again." Gina's usual brand of insanity fades, this is the first time I've ever heard her not refer to herself in the third person. She no longer sounds like a child, now she sounds like a true person.
I pull away from her and gently place my hands on either side of her face. "I am so sorry." I softly say to her. She has a ridiculous smile on her face.
"Alvarcus," Sasuke tentatively says, "I can do it if you can't-"
SNAP
I twist her head 180 degrees. I broke her neck. I killed her.
Her body crumples to the floor. The crowd watching us rages at my actions. They wanted to kill her slowly.
Sasuke places what is supposed to be a comforting hand on my shoulder. "If you didn't, I would have." That is all he says.
I turn to Orochimaru. The crazy gleam in his eyes is gone, it's replaced with surprise. He must have not expected me to kill her. He didn't think I could stomach it, instead he thought I'd leave her down here to be tortured for hours.
"Well? What are we waiting for? I want to see the sun again." And run away from what I just did. I liked Gina, she was a friend. A friend I killed. I never want to come back here.
He runs through some hand signs and deactivates the barrier. We follow him up the wall. Once we are officially out the barrier snaps back into place.
"Why did you kill her?" Orochimaru asks. I was wondering how long it would take.
"Because she was a friend." Sasuke says. "We heard the others talking, plotting her death. A long painful death. Alvarcus spared her from that. If he didn't, I would have."
"You killed her out of kindness?" Orochimaru asks me specifically.
"Yes. I did. This way her last moments are of friends. Not torture." I take a deep breath. "I think it is better that way. You wouldn't let us bring her, we couldn't let her stay there alone. Not after what we did. We made her our responsibility, the others would torture her just to try to get revenge on us."
"What an interesting concept. Killing out of kindness." Orochimaru mutters to himself.
We walk out the front door. Sunlight shines on us for the first time in months. It is a beautiful day.
And a sour one.
The Next Morning
It is a beautiful morning. I'm still in bed, wrapped up in a cocoon of very nice blankets. Say what you will about Orochimaru, if he likes you he gets you good stuff. Even the pillow is amazing, it conforms to my head wonderfully. Nothing could ruin this moment.
"Up and at them you lazy ass!" Tayuya shouts at me.
Except that.
"Mmmphf." I'm too cozy to get up now. I haven't been in an actual bed in months.
Splash
"YOU STRUMPET I WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD ON A PLATE!" Tayuya dumped a bucket of water on me. My perfect comfy bed is now ruined, never to be that cozy again.
"Get up." Tayuya holds another bucket menacingly with an evil gleam in her eyes. "I'm not afraid to use this. I'm supposed to bring you and Red-eyes to the training field. Orochimaru wants to officially start your training."
I untangle myself from my cocoon of now wet blankets. It is surprisingly hard. "Red-eyes?"
"The Uchiha." She suggestively swings the second bucket around. "Want to help me get him up?"
We share a devious grin. "Yes, yes I do."
"There will be no need for that." Sasuke's voice cuts through the air. "I've been up since before Alvarcus called you a strumpet." Sure enough Sasuke is already ready to go. How unfortunate, I was looking forward to seeing a bucket of water dumped on him. I'll need to add that onto my list of things to do.
"Ruin all the fun." Tayuya huffs. Sasuke's eyes quickly flash down to the bucket then over to me and rest back on Tayuya. She tilts her head just a little to the left and then adjusts her stance.
She whirls and dumps the water on me. Again.
Sasuke and Tayuya are laughing like maniacs as I sit on my even more wet bed. There is no way it will be dry by tonight.
"Red-eyes that was a great idea!" Tayuya wipes a fake tear out of her eye. "I knew you were good for something."
"I wish you had a third bucket." Sasuke is still chuckling to himself. "We were in the Pit for two months. It would have helped with the smell."
That bastard thinks I smell? I'll have you know I spent at least three hours in the shower. Hot water is amazing, simply amazing. You try going two months with only a freezing cold waterfall to wash off in, it is not a fun time. Not to mention the lack of any hygienic products, I made sure I was squeaky clean the moment we came topside.
"Sasuke, Tayuya." I say in a no nonsense tone. Their laughter peters out. "I really hope we spar today. I won't be holding back."
Sasuke pales, he does know the things I am capable of. Tayuya just arrogantly laughs at me.
"Bring it on! I'm one of the personal body guards to Orochimaru, I'll put you in the ground!"
"We shall see. Now, I believe you were fetching us for Orochimaru?" I say in a very professional tone. Sasuke visibly flinches, he knows that I'm serious about my threat.
Tayuya drops her buckets on my bed. Jerk. "Come on kiddies! The Boss awaits." We follow her out of my room to the training field.
Orochimaru is waiting for us with the rest of the Sound Four. Maybe he wasn't kidding when he said he will have us tested against the Sound Four two months ago.
Holy crap I've been a missing nin for two months already?!
"Alvarcus, Sasuke, Tayuya! So glad you could join us!" Orochimaru calls out. Tayuya walks over to the rest of her team and Sasuke and I approach Orochimaru. He looks me up and down. "You're soaked."
"Yes. I will have my revenge." I swear with a fist clenched and raised in front of my chest.
Orochimaru shrugs in indifference. "Just don't kill them. Or permanent injury." He adds on in an afterthought.
Tayuya just laughs and tells the Sound Four what happened. Then they join her laughing. Assholes, the bunch of them.
Orochimaru lazily sits down in the only chair here. "To business. Tell me what you are capable of, I need to know what I am working with."
Sasuke goes first. "You've seen my taijutsu. I have various fire ninjutsu in addition to the ones you've seen. I have a plethora of low level genjutsu and a few mid tier ones, most of them are aimed around sensory deprivation. And the Sharingan, obviously."
"What would you say your current rank is?" Orochimaru asks Sasuke.
"Chunin at least. Maybe even a high chunin or special jonin." Sasuke says in his patented arrogant tone. That kid is full of himself.
"Hm. Possible. And you Alvarcus?" Orochimaru turns his gaze on me.
"Like Sasuke, you've seen my taijutsu. I have only one genjutsu, Eyes of the Damned which I use in conjunction with my chakra strings. My ninjutsu is my selling point. I can make chakra strings from anywhere on my body, you saw them in action in the Forest of Death. I've only gotten better with time, I can make an elemental change with them now. I need a heart of each affinity to do so, chakra strings are fickle like that. I have the jutsu from your scroll all learned and I have various low level jutsu meant to take down opponents without killing them for each element. Oh and the Jiongu, but you already knew that."
"What would you rank yourself as?" Orochimaru asks with a faintly proud smile on his face.
"Same as Sasuke. Chunin, possible high chunin or special jonin."
"Also possible. I can't be sure until I've truly seen you in various combat situations." Orochimaru says to us both. "Now your training truly begins."
"Hold up." I say. "If the training is only starting now, what was the whole two months in the Pit for?" He better not have thrown Sasuke and I down there for amusement. Those months were not pleasant, even if we did end up running the place after a week.
"It was to see what kind of people you two are and determine what role to train you for." Orochimaru starts to explain. "When in the Pit, there are a few ways people react. They will submit to the strong and use them as a shield to protect themselves. They will become lone wolves and fight tooth and nail to survive. They will form their own faction around themselves and become strong themselves. In other words, they show me if they are leaders, solo nin, or followers."
"What are we?" Sasuke asks. I am curious too, we didn't do any of those things.
"You two are unique. You didn't submit to those already down there. You didn't become the lone wolves. You didn't gather others around you." A smile finds its way onto Orochimaru's face. "What you two did is force everyone into submission. You two didn't care what the others did as long as they did what you told them too, you ruled over them with an iron fist. Your word was law."
"And? We know what we did, what does it make us?" I prod Orochimaru to reveal what he thinks of us.
"Me. You are both like me." I did not expect that. Judging by Sasuke's reaction, he didn't either. "You will be molded into my most powerful subordinates. Only my orders will surpass yours. You two are rulers, kings, Kages. You will help me rule over the Land of Sound."
No one breaths. Everyone present is shocked by that revelation, even the Sound Four.
"But not yet. You're not strong enough yet. Being my immediate underlings isn't something given, it is something earned. You'll have to fight your way to the top, you'll even have to fight each other to see who is my second in command."
I snort at Orochimaru. In hindsight, that is a very bad thing to do when he is monologuing like this.
"Sasuke and I are a team. We will be either your second or dead. We work together, like how your Sound Flunkies all have the same rank." I hear various insults directed towards me, but I ignore them.
"Oh? You think that I'll let you two stay together?" Orochimaru says in a disturbing tone. That thought never occurred to me, he could split us up.
"If you're smart you will." Sasuke intervenes. If Sasuke and I both want to stay together, Orochimaru will probably let us. "Even Tsunade saw the potential we have as a team. She left us as a two man team, she never got us a third like all the others in Konoha. Surely if Tsunade is capable of seeing it, you are too. You are better than her, that is why we are here."
Orochimaru considers. "We shall see. You two will be split if the situation calls for only one of you, but I don't see why I can't have you two work together often."
"That's all we ask for." I say. I know that we won't be going on any crazy missions together, Orochimaru wouldn't risk his next body. At the worst I'll have to deal with a few Oto nin on various missions that are too dangerous to have Sasuke go on.
Orochimaru leans back deeper into his plush chair. "We are here for training, not for discussions of how I will use you. I have a few ideas for a training regime tailored to each of you. Sasuke is going to focus on precision and kenjutsu. Alvarcus is going to expand his jutsu library considerably and work more on pure overwhelming force. Both of you will be working on your speed, strength, stamina, chakra supply and chakra control." Orochimaru pauses for a moment. "Is there anything either of you want to add to that? Might as well get input from you, you do know yourselves better than I do. For now."
While ignoring how creepy his last words were, I demand "Summoning. I want my own summons."
"Summoning would be beneficial. Most of the strong shinobi have a summon contract." Sasuke agrees with me.
"Fine. Only one of you can sign the Snake scroll. The other will have to reverse summon their self to a summon realm." Orochimaru concedes to our request.
Sasuke and I look at each other. "I'll fight you for the Snakes." He says to me. "Winner signs it, loser gambles on getting their own."
"Snakes are all yours. I want my own." Sasuke is surprised at my answer, he must like the snake contract. "Nothing against them, but we wouldn't mesh well. Besides, when I come back with a lion, bear or even dragon contract I'll rub it in your smug face!"
Sasuke smirks at me. "When you come back with a ladybug contract I'll laugh at you and rub it in your face!"
"Kukukuku, amusing." Orochimaru's laugh brings us back to reality. "Alvarcus, you will do this now. Not everyone returns from being reversed summoned, I won't train someone who will die later." Morbid yet practical. Why waste time training me if I die to the summon creatures? "Come, I will show you the hand signs. Then we will see you again. Or not."
Orochimaru slowly goes through the sings for summoning, there aren't even that many. How boring. I thought this was supposed to be difficult.
"No time like the present!" I merrily say. I start to go through the signs.
"Bets on if he comes back or not?" Kidomaru says off to my left. "I think he'll die."
"He is so dead." Tayuya adds on. "Such a shame. Imagine how good he could be with that unlimited stamina. Talk about wasted potential." She shoots a scandalous smirk my way.
"Did not need to know that. He's going to die." Sakon places his bet.
"Violently killed." Jirobo happily says.
"He'll survive." Sasuke says. "It will take more than this to kill him. Believe me, I would know."
Kidomaru snorts in amusement. "Well you did spear him in the heart."
"You're all assholes." I finish the hand signs and push out my chakra and a few drops of blood. "See ya soon!"
"Until you return, my child." Orochimaru confidently says. Then a flicker of emotion crosses his face. "Just... please don't come back with a Toad or Slug contract. I'd hate to have to kill you."
"Thanks for the inspiring bout of confidence." I sarcastically say over a shoulder.