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.
...
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