Pre-Chapter A/N: Here we go with another chapter. Next four chapters on my patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga)— same username as here and link in bio.
Toshiro body flickered forwards, blade arcing out before he had even reached his opponent. Sparks flew as edge met edge. The Anbu had unsealed a kunai from somewhere in the time between Toshiro's body flicker beginning and it ending while predicting Toshiro's attack vector and moving to guard against the attack? Fast. Scarily fast. But Toshiro had fought fast before. He had killed fast.
His blade began to glow again, as he began the slow, careful work of inserting a genjutsu into his opponent's mind. But this time instead of expecting the genjutsu to take hold instantly and thus dropping his offence, he turned up the ante. They were a whirlwind of steel, blades coming bitingly close to tasting flesh multiple times, but skill and reach on Toshiro's part and sheer strength and speed on the part of his opponent kept the both of them unharmed.
A fact that would be sure to anger his opponent soon. A man like this could not have many equals—of which Toshiro was not one for sure, but he did not need to be to hold his own and that would anger him.
Toshiro took a step back, yielding the space easily as the kunai came close to parting his eyeball and lodging itself inside his brain. At the same time, his katana drew a line across his opponent's right arm. It felt like his blade had kissed steel as it did so, failing to find purchase. Toshiro stared at the clothing the Anbu agent wore. If there was armour there, then the man had to be tiny. He didn't hit like a tiny man, that was for sure.
A form of defensive technique then. A thin line had been drawn through part of his sleeve, revealing the pale flesh beneath. Flesh that was untouched. Toshiro changed the nature of the chakra running through his blade then, the hum signifying the electricity that now ran through it. They clashed again, this time the addition of lightning natured chakra gave Toshiro the advantage.
He swung his blade with a flourish, performing exaggerated movements and relying on the nature of lightning release to produce a disorienting effect with the aftereffects of the light the blade emitted spreading through the air. He spun his katana this way and that to obfuscate his movements with a quick application of an area of effect genjutsu before stabbing straight out. His opponent saw through it all easily, catching the katana in his bare hands and stopping it mere inches from his heart.
"Skilled, but lacking in power. Is this what Shorirama Senju's teammate is capable of?" Toshiro suppressed his shock at being so easily identified, continuing to push and to increase the amount of chakra coursing through his blade as he did so. But none of it worked in his favour. The man's grip was unyielding and no matter how much lightning Toshiro sent through his body, he remained unfazed.
The Anbu agent then let go of the blade and jumped backwards. Fugaku tore through the ground beneath which he had been standing a moment ago. Kunai searching out for an opponent that was no longer there. Still, the Uchiha was adaptable. He spun, tossing the kunai with all the strength he could manage. It flew straight and true before multiplying to become a dozen with two quick seals from the Uchiha.
Only then did Toshiro note the seal tags at the end of each blade. A genjutsu to prevent it from being noticed? Brilliant. If he tried to catch them like he usually did then he would find a nasty surprise. But just like with all of Toshiro's genjutsu, the Anbu agent saw through it all with ease, shoving out his arms and creating a storm of wind that threw the kunai in every which direction.
They exploded, some in mid-air, others once they landed, devastating the forested training ground and ensuring that if Kiri was not already on its way then it soon would be.
"Fugaku Uchiha, Toshiro Takehada, Kageru Fumikage, and two others. What a great force Konoha has sent within our borders to die," he said with that same just nearly mocking tone he'd used earlier.
"He's using chakra to enhance his speed, strength and durability. More of it than I have ever seen anyone use. Even the Uzumaki jinchuriki. If you tried it, you would be dead in a minute," Fugaku said in a clipped whisper, taking advantage of the seeming lull in the battle to give Toshiro the information he needed. And that was very useful information. If he was using so much chakra then they could just outlast him.
Or at least they could have...if Kiri was not about to fall upon them in force. Fugaku probably thought the same as he offered him a slight upturn of his lips like he could read the brief moment of hope and then the realisation that killed said hope with the surety of a beheading at sunset.
"He has a weakness though," Fugaku said.
"What is it?" Toshiro asked, daring to hope. Only for the Uchiha to dash all that hope against the ground with a shrug.
"We'll find out, I'm sure. But everyone does. No one is perfect," he said.
"How did he deal with my lightning release?" Toshiro asked, hoping for a weakness there. He was loath to abandon his greatest ninjutsu strength so soon in the fight but if it continued to be so ineffective, he would have to.
"He lets the lightning flow through him, but guides it with his chakra into the ground. He has so much more chakra than you do that there's just no way for your lightning to resist the path he gives it," he said.
Toshiro smiled beside himself. That...that sounded like something he could take advantage of.
"Are you quite done now?" the Anbu agent asked.
Toshiro made to snark out a reply before there was a hand around his face. He was lifted into the air and slammed into the ground, creating an explosion of dust, the impact winding more than hurting him.
He reached up for the fingers around his head, trying to pry the grip of the Anbu agent loose, but the man was holding tight. It was like a vice around his skull that just kept squeezing. Could this be how he died? Then the force was gone.
It took him a second to open his eyes again, and even when he did, he could barely see more than the blurred sky above. His head hurt. Like his brain itself had been attacked just now. He lurched to his feet though. Pain meant he was alive. Staying down would change that state of things.
When his vision cleared, it was to find Isagi and Fumikage engaging. The Akimichi had grown to his full size and was tearing around the battlefield as a spinning wheel of destruction. While he did so, ramps of all sorts were lifting themselves out of the earth, allowing him to change directions or accelerate on a dime. At the same time, Fumikage had unsealed her fuuma shuriken and wielded what looked to be six of them at the same time, using them to force the Anbu agent into a series of dodges.
Both of them working together ensured he never got a second of respite to target either of them alone. He felt a hand slap his shoulder and the pain in his head was gone. His vision cleared further now and the blurred appearances he could see came into crystal clear clarity.
Genjutsu, he realised. When he had his hands around his head most likely. Add to the pain being caused by his grip with a genjutsu, using the first to hide the presence of the latter. In his right senses, Toshiro would have noticed instantly. As it was now, he had needed help to notice and remove it.
"Thanks," he whispered to the Uchiha, but the man was already gone. His red eyes had been rolling across the battlefield for a while before he body flickered forwards.
He had seen an opening of some sort, for sure.
The Anbu agent seemed to have been waiting for Fugaku's entry into the battle, blocking the kunai thrust for his head with his crossed wrists, catching Fugaku's forearm before he could complete the stab. Fugaku dropped the blade, and it fell. He used the distraction to swing into a roundhouse kick, but the Anbu agent had not taken the bait.
He'd ignored the kunai once it was dropped, and blocked Fugaku's kick with a raised forearm. His other arm stretched out and caught the fuuma shuriken that sought to shear him in two. He reared that arm back before freezing.
The kunai had never dropped to the ground. Floating of its own accord, the kunai went straight into his body, stabbing to the hilt and then dragging itself up, opening him up from navel to neck. Fugaku had used one of Fumikage's kunai rather than his own. So she had been able to use her magnet release for it.
Toshiro felt the fires of victory in his stomach for a second before it faded like a candle snuffed out by the wind.
Because it was not blood that flowed from what should have been a killing blow. It was water. Far too much water. The body swelled up like a balloon near bursting and wept from its single opening with more and more water. So much water that in a matter of seconds, he could not take a step without hearing the splashing of water as it piled around his feet and then up. Toshiro had no doubts about what was happening here. Battlefield control and adaptation.
A Mist shinobi creating so much water that the dry training ground turned into a swamp meant only one thing. He was going to turn this into a ninjutsu battle, and that was not one that Toshiro was at all certain they could win. Isagi was terrifying with his earth release, and Fugaku was an Uchiha so his fire release had to be something special. The only issue was the rest of them.
Toshiro himself knew quite a few jutsu, but very few of them could be used safely without risking his ability to continue the battle. His chakra capacity just could not allow it. Fumikage used her magnet release through weapons almost exclusively. She had some earth and wind, but not enough to risk a full scale battle against someone in their element. And then there was Uzumaki. Never mind. His chains would be a good defence, but he was best kept out of the battle. He was the one with the mission target, after all.
That reminder was like a cold splash of water on Toshiro's back. What was he doing here? He had achieved his mission objectives already. Suiren Hozuki was, if not already dead, then dying, and they had captured the jinchuriki already. They had no business in this fight. They should be fleeing. But then turning their back on the enemy was one way to get killed.
He sighed as the plan came together in his mind. He would have to decide between his pride and succeeding in this mission. The water had grown to the level where it was up to his shin guards now. The original still had not shown himself. He trudged over to where the other four had set up back to back and seamlessly slotted in before he began to speak.
"He's stronger than us. Perhaps so much stronger that we can not win here. Our wounds are already substantial enough to be a problem in battle. We need to retreat," he whispered.
"He will slaughter us if we turn our backs to him," Fugaku whispered back, surprisingly on board with the concept of retreat. If anyone would have fought the idea, he would have expected it to be the prideful Uchiha. But those eyes were probably good enough that he could see the thing Toshiro was just beginning to realise. They were being toyed with. Their opponent still hadn't bothered showing himself. He didn't care what they did because he felt he was strong enough to deal with it.
And Toshiro wished he could prove him wrong, but too many moments came together in his mind to tell a story. Not a story he liked either.
"Well, you're right on that account," the Anbu agent's smug voice spoke out. He had appeared in the middle of the training ground, slung over his shoulder was Suiren Hozuki. The body that floated in the water faded into the water. This was the second time he was managing to get a genjutsu over on him. And worrying enough, Fugaku did not appear to have noticed it either. Genjutsu strong enough to fool even the sharingan. Toshiro was even more decided on his course of action.
He took out the kunai from his flak jacket.
"Oh?"
"I will be offering you my sympathies from here, Anbu-san. I would have said until we meet again, but we will never meet again. You are truly strong, but this man is not even a man anymore," he said.
And before he could be asked to explain what he meant, he dropped the kunai into the water. It sank like a stone, burying itself into the ground surely.
For a second nothing happened, and Toshiro feared that he had been forsaken, and then there was weight.
Shorirama appeared, not as the Hokage, but as the warrior that had cleaved Iwa in two. His chakra was oppressive. If the man they faced was like the sea, then Shori was the ocean. Boundless, dark, and dangerous.
"I trust you can manage your retreat," were the first words his teammate spoke upon arrival. Toshiro nodded, recognising the dismissal. Shori probably could see the threat level of the man he faced with his byakugan. Getting them out first was the right thing to do.
Toshiro did not need to signal to his team for them to get the message as well. They jumped away as one, heading towards the treeline. From there it would be out of the village.
And as they fled, Toshiro sensed the forces of Kiri beginning to bear down on the training ground they had just left. They were leaving their Kage alone to face a village. But it would be fine. Shori was strong. And he could teleport if he needed to retreat. He would just buy them the time they needed and then he would leave. But part of Toshiro did not believe that. He knew the man he had been on a genin team with, after all. And that man did not run from a fight.
XXXXXX- OROCHIMARU
"Sssssssssso you want to be a Snake Sage, eh?" the great white snake said from his position on top of the altar or throne. It was unclear which it was.
"Yes, Great Snake Sage," he said, practically supplicating himself before the Snake Sage. He could not feel its power, but that alone gave him cause for caution. Manda feared this snake, and yet looking at it, there was nothing to fear. It was fat and did not seem to have any more chakra than the chair it sat on. But it was a snake. A snake waited for its time to strike, and it was just like them to hide their fangs before doing so. If that was the case, then he would not risk upsetting it just in case it decided not to part with its secrets and proved too strong to be coerced.
"I sssssseee. And are you ready for my test?" the Snake asked next. Orochimaru had not been explicitly informed of a test. Part of him had thought finding the Ryuchi Cave was the test itself. But it was not a surprise that he minded all that much. Whatever the test was, he would pass it. He had no doubts about that.
"Yes, Great Snake Sage," he said in the same supplicant's tone. The tone that he hated but bore with good grace.
"Sssssssssplendid," the Snake said, and then it moved.
Its large mass lurched and the fat snake had stretched its neck across the space between them in less than a second. Orochimaru tried to move, but his feet were stuck in the stone. The snake's head loomed over him before it bit down, fangs digging into his flesh and then filling his body with venom.
The snake returned to its throne and the ground released him. He tried to take a step forward, rage burning through him but his feet just would not carry him. He fell to his knees first, and then his face. His resistance to poisons had been completely overwhelmed by whatever it was the Snake Sage had put in him. It was burning through him at pace.
This is why no one knew where the cave was, he realised. The Snake Sage had no interest in parting with its secrets. Anyone who found the cave ended up killed for their success, and the cycle continued anew. He was just the latest victim in a long line of the unfortunate.
But he could not be. Sensei believed in him. Orochimaru did not live for only his own dreams anymore. Sensei. The only father he had ever known had entrusted him with his dream. He couldn't die here. He had to fight the poison. He had to fight. To... He had... Fight....
All Orochimaru knew was darkness.
And then he woke. But not in the world he had slept in. He woke in a world that was not just alive. It was conscious. Everything. The ground beneath his back. The walls. The roof of the cave. All of it was alive and he could speak to it all.
"Ssssssssso you survived then. Impressive," a voice called out, making him flinch against his will. Loud. So loud.
A/N: In this world, Orochimaru ends up at the Ryuchi cave before doing all his crazy experiments so his body is actually strong enough to handle being a Snake Sage now. And being a Snake Sage is going to be huge buff here. Think of the things Kabuto showed in that fight with Itachi/Sasuke and then taken to their logical conclusions. Discount on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) for those interested. Next chapter comes on here on Wednesday night/Thursday morning (depending on your timezone). Next four chapters up on patreon(https://www.patreon.com/c/Oghenevwogaga) (same username as here and link in bio), support me there and read them early.