Naruto : Venom

One of Sound's Training Fields

Sasuke stares at me.

I stare at Sasuke.

The Sound Four are off to the side making bets on who will win. Only Tayuya bets that I will be victorious.

Orochimaru and Kabuto look very impatient, they want us to start already.

"Rules?" I ask Sasuke.

"No killing. No crippling attacks either. Knock out or surrender means the match is over." Sasuke rattles off basic rules for every spar.

"No destroying my hearts either. They are not easy to replace." Although, I am pretty sure that everyone here would be fair game to kill. Even the prisoners, I doubt Orochimaru would kidnap someone that people would look for. He probably goes after thieves, bandits and murderers.

Aw crap. I left Konoha before I got my fire heart. That's going to be annoying to replace.

"Fine." Sasuke agrees. "If I hit one in the mask it is considered destroyed. Agreed?"

"Agreed."

With the rules decided it is now time to start the spar. We still don't move. I want to see what Sasuke will do, and he is probably waiting for me to use my monsters.

"Lesson one: Taijutsu." Sasuke says.

He appears before me in a burst of speed, his arm poised to strike at my throat. I lazily intercept his attack with my left arm.

"Taijutsu it is."

I kick at his knees, aiming to slow him down. He dodges backwards, but is right back in attacking range in the next moment. He sends a flurry of quick punches at me, I dodge most and block those I couldn't. He's forcing me on the defensive, he's setting the pace for the battle. I can't have that. I catch his next punch, forcing him to stay in one spot. His eyes widen slightly. I rear back and slam my foot into his chest sending him flying across the training field.

"Come on Sasuke, that doesn't show improvement. You've always been better at taijutsu than me, you should have dodged that kick even if I had a hold of you." I'm not even lying, I've tried that same move on him before and he has contorted out of the way. "Don't get cocky just because you have gotten a power boost. I'm still strong in my own right. You'll have to take me seriously."

Inky black marks flow across Sasuke's skin, covering his whole body before settling in one spot. "I am." He's using the curse seal now. Level one.

A kick slams into the back of my right knee forcing me to kneel. Sasuke relentlessly attacks, getting in four good punches to the back of my head before I can recover. I lash out behind me sweeping him off of his feet. He falls to the ground and I follow up with a punch aimed at his solar plexus. He rolls out of the way and I bury my fist into the ground.

Sasuke climbs to his feet and raises and eyebrow. "You're really not holding back on your punches."

"And you're one to talk." His punches hurt. "I think I have a concussion. How does that even work? I don't have a brain to concuss."

He smirks at me. Arrogant bastard. "Let's move on then. Lesson two: Genjutsu."

"Oh come on!" I whine like a child. "You know I only know one genjutsu and it is a utility one! How am I supposed to attack?"

~The host will not be ensnared!~

"Damn you're good Sasuke, I barely notice you already placed a genjutsu on me." I've got to give him that, he is going to be scary at genjutsu with his Sharingan.

Pain! "Unfortunately for you, I'm immune to most genjutsu." Pain! "The Jiongu senses the foreign chakra and breaks me out." Pain! "I have no idea which ones you're using, but they are not going to work."

"The Jiongu is so unfair." Sasuke huffs in annoyance.

"The Sharingan is more unfair. You can practically see what I am about to do! You only have to watch a jutsu to learn it and can cast crazy genjutsu and see through them easily! Who cares if I have access to all the elements! If I can't hit you I can't kill you."

"Fine! Lesson two is over." Sasuke takes a leap backwards, giving himself plenty of space between us. "Lesson three: Ninjutsu."

"Finally!" I remove my shirt, no need to ruin a perfectly good shirt during a spar. I really need to figure out a better way to do this, I go through a ridiculous amount of shirts. "Tell ya what, I won't use my monsters. I'll give you a handicap."

"I'll make you use them. Grand Fireball!" Sasuke spits out his signature jutsu towards me. I calmly raise an earth wall to intercept it. "Tch."

"You'll have to do better than that. Devouring Earth!" I slam my hands on the ground and jaws of earth clamp around Sasuke. Or what was Sasuke, the jaws crushed a log that he replaced with. "Where did you find a log down here? We're in a cave!"

"Phoenix Flowers!" Sasuke spits out multiple small fireballs towards me. I know that there are shuriken hidden inside from our previous spars and that he has wires to control them attached.

I use that against him. I send out my chakra strings, one per each fire ball and latch them onto the hidden shuriken.

"Lightning Whip!"

Lightning arcs up the wires and into Sasuke. He drops the wires and I bat the shuriken out of the way.

"Face it Sasuke, I'm better than you at ninjutsu. You can't use genjutsu against me. Our taijutsu is nearly even. You can't beat me and you know it. I'm not even going all out!" I should not have said that. That was a tremendously bad idea.

"Neither am I!" Sasuke yells back at me.

He's pushing himself into his level two mode. His skin turns into a dark gray, his hair changes from black to a dark blue. His fingers become clawed. Huge grotesque hand/wing... things sprout from his back.

"Yes! I can feel the power! The strength!" He experimentally moves his new appendages around. "You don't stand a chance now!"

"Dude, you're ugly." He quits admiring himself and turns to me with a shocked expression. "Just show that form to your fan girls and you will never have a problem with them again. Are those giant hands coming out of your back?"

"DIE!" Is Sasuke's response. He lunges at me with a crazy amount of speed he didn't have before. I barely dodge in time. He doesn't let up, he's rushing at me with everything he has. Punches, kicks, swipes, nothing is off limits. Finally fed up with my dodging he leaps back to put a few meters between us.

"Sasuke, just calm down!" He ignores me and takes a stance I know all too well. One arm pointed down, the other holding the wrist.

"CHIDORI!" This time when he lunges at me I can't dodge. His Chidori enhanced speed is too great for me.

Squelch

~He hurt us!~

His arm is buried in my chest. Up to his elbow. He lanced a hole straight through me. I look up from his arm to his face. I can't believe it. He actually destroyed one of my hearts. The one that was in my chest.

~Host, I don't understand. Of all the humans we've met, he was the one that I never thought would hurt us. Do we... do we kill him now?~

"Sasuke?" I shakily say.

"Who is weaker now?" He asks arrogantly. This isn't him, he would never do this. The power lust from level two has to be getting to him, influencing how he thinks. I refuse to believe this is Sasuke.

"This isn't you. Sasuke, this isn't you. Come back to your senses."

He laughs. Laughs at me. "Of course this is me! Who else would I be? I feel amazing! This power is great! It's better than the Jiongu!"

He's drunk with power. "Fine." I grip his arm that is still in my chest with my left hand. "If you won't come back to your senses, I'll make you."

I crush his arm. There is a sickening snap that echos throughout the chamber. He screams in pain and leaps away from me.

The hole in my chest is slowly stitched closed, I'm missing a huge chunk of skin where my heart should be, all that is there is the Jiongu. "You brought this on yourself. This is your last chance, release the curse seal and come back."

"No!" He roars with insanity in his eyes. "I need this!" He runs towards me, intent on spearing me again with his clawed hands.

"So be it." I will my lightning, earth and wind heart out. I keep water inside me. I'm lucky he destroyed one of my two lightning hearts. False Darkness lances out towards Sasuke, forcing him to dodge left. Pressure Damage slams into him hurling him across the field to my waiting earth heart. Jaws of earth snap upwards and trap Sasuke, confining him to only one spot. "Change back."

"NO!" With great effort he breaks out of his earthy prison. "I will defeat you! I will kill you! I will prove that I am better than you! I've always been better than you! I'll always be better than you!"

"Not today." He's exactly where I want him to be, he's right where I've made my chakra strings. I switch them into water whips and immediately wrap them around my raging friend. "Today I win."

False Darkness tears across the field and strikes Sasuke right in the chest. I get some backlash from the electricity traveling up the water whips. Sasuke's whole body slumps into unconsciousness and his level two form fades.

I walk to his side and kneel next to him. "Sasuke, what good is power if it causes you to lose your mind?"

"An impressive fight." Orochimaru says as Kabuto rushes to the downed Sasuke. "I didn't expect you to be victorious. Tell me, why did you hold back? You could have used your full strength early on in the fight, yet you didn't. Is it weakness? Is it out of pity? Deceit perhaps? Do you not want him to know how strong you truly are?"

"A little of everything really. I don't want to actually hurt him, even if he went crazy he's still my friend. Call it weakness if you want. Pity? I do pity Sasuke but I respect his strength. I didn't hold back because of pity."

"And what of deceit?" Orochimaru prods me to continue.

"I have no need to deceive my only friend here. He's seen me battle before, he knows what I am capable of. He knew I was holding back the entire time, it is probably what pushed him so far. He wanted to see if he is good enough to make me go all out."

Orochimaru grins, "Is he?"

That one simple question gave me pause. Is Sasuke good enough to make me go all out? Could he force me to bring my entire strength to bear?

"No. Not yet, but one day he will be greater than me. Then I'll be asking if I could make him go all out against me. Of that I have no doubt."

"Marvelous. That wasn't the pinnacle of your strength?" Orochimaru's body is brimming with joy. "I knew you would be amazing, you do take after me. But this? Simply outstanding! I'll have to have the Sound Four fight against you just to gauge your strength. The planning behind your moves, the execution and the utilization of all of the elements so fluidly at such a young age!"

I sigh. "If you want me to fight the Sound Flunkies whatever." Said flunkies bristle at my insult, Tayuya just laughs and flashes me a thumbs up. She's weird like that. "How about another time? I did just lose a heart, I'm not at my best. I haven't been for quite a while now."

Orochimaru floods with concern. "We can't have that! Tell me, what kind of heart do you need?"

...

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