Variables

Fresh blood dripped down Orochimaru's pale arm, spreading into a patch of dark red across the rotting leaves.

He could no longer remember the last time he had been injured.

Though such a wound was nothing to him, it still gave him the same unpleasant feeling as biting into a fish bone while eating.

"Heh heh..."

A low laugh, suppressing fury, rumbled from deep within his throat.

"What a... tremendous surprise you've given me, Naruto Uzumaki."

The way he looked at Naruto Uzumaki changed completely.

It was no longer the appreciation one had for an interesting toy, but the scrutiny of one kind upon discovering another, the wariness of a predator toward another predator it could not understand.

This brat's fighting style, his so-called theory of "Purification," and that unheard-of weapon...

Everything about him carried a strange quality that did not belong to this world.

If he did not reveal more of his abilities, taking Sasuke Uchiha, that perfect vessel, without injury in a short time would likely come at a considerable cost.

Orochimaru's left hand, hidden inside his sleeve, silently formed an extremely subtle hand seal.

It was a signal.

A signal only the pawn he trusted most could understand.

In another battle several hundred meters away, Kabuto Yakushi, wearing round glasses, had just cleanly dispatched two Sound Ninja examinees attempting to seize his scroll with a surgical scalpel.

He adjusted his glasses, and his gaze beneath the lenses precisely caught Orochimaru's tiny movement in the distance.

"It seems Lord Orochimaru has run into some trouble."

He muttered to himself, a confident smile curling across his lips.

"Naruto Uzumaki... he really is becoming more and more intriguing."

Kabuto Yakushi did not hesitate in the slightest. He took an utterly unremarkable scroll from his robes and casually slapped it against the tree trunk before him.

The scroll silently turned into a wisp of green smoke and merged into the forest.

There was no violent surge of chakra, nor were there any startling sights or sounds.

Yet the dampness that lingered in the forest year-round, mixed with the stench of rotting leaves and soil, seemed to grow heavier.

Even the flow of air seemed to become thick and sluggish.

At the center of the battlefield.

Naruto Uzumaki still maintained his guarded stance. The Shadow Clones around him formed an impregnable diamond-shaped defensive formation.

He could sense that Orochimaru's aura remained sinister, but now carried a trace of gravity.

"What's going on?"

Sasuke's voice suddenly rang out, tinged with strange confusion.

His Sharingan could clearly see the flow of chakra.

Just then, he had discovered an extremely faint, bizarre chakra spreading through the air, invisible to the naked eye.

Like all-pervasive mist, it silently enveloped the area.

"Naruto Uzumaki, the air..."

He wanted to warn him, but found that his tongue seemed numb and would not obey him.

Naruto Uzumaki noticed the anomaly at almost the same moment.

His battle-hardened body possessed an instinct for changes in his surroundings that was nearly beastlike.

The air entering his lungs carried a faint, abnormal sensation that numbed the nerves.

His combat style, which depended heavily on biological function, suffered an incredibly brief stagnation at that moment.

Bzzzz—

The roar of the Chainsword faltered almost imperceptibly.

Now!

"Are you all right?!"

A gentle yet anxious voice came from the woods behind and to the side.

Kabuto Yakushi emerged from behind a clump of bushes, a Konoha forehead protector clearly visible on his brow.

His face held just the right amount of concern and urgency, like a Konoha comrade who had happened to pass by and come to offer support.

"Get behind me, quickly! I'll hold them off for a while!"

He shouted as he charged toward Team 7, his movements appearing entirely harmless.

A flash of relieved joy even crossed Sakura's face.

Yet the instant he approached Naruto Uzumaki's defensive perimeter, his wrist flicked.

Several Senbon coated with the same neurotoxin silently shot toward Naruto Uzumaki's Shadow Clones from an exceptionally tricky angle.

This was not a lethal attack. Its sole purpose was to create chaos and expose an opening.

Naruto Uzumaki's Shadow Clones immediately swung their swords to block, but the sluggishness in their nerves made them a beat too slow.

Clang! Clang!

As the crisp impacts rang out, two Shadow Clones created a fleeting gap in the formation while blocking the Senbon.

Orochimaru seized the opportunity.

A perfect opportunity created by his subordinate's intelligence.

Snake Shedding Technique!

His body, like a discarded snakeskin, went limp and remained where it was, taking the heavy blow from Naruto Uzumaki's true body.

Meanwhile, his real body appeared within the gap in the formation by some incomprehensible means.

His neck stretched unnaturally, as though it had no bones, then stretched farther.

In an instant, it crossed more than ten meters and appeared before Naruto Uzumaki.

There was no ninjutsu.

Nor was there any bizarre technique.

Only a tightly clenched fist, gathering the strength of his entire body, struck Naruto Uzumaki's left temple with ruthless precision.

Thud!

A dull, tooth-aching impact rang out.

For the first time, the light in Naruto Uzumaki's ice-blue eyes, always burning with the flames of judgment, violently wavered before rapidly dimming.

The world before his eyes suddenly went black.

The immense impact sent his body, solid as rock, falling backward beyond his control.

Boom.

Naruto Uzumaki's body crashed heavily to the ground, sending dust flying.

The ceaselessly roaring Chainsword slipped from his loosened grip and clattered to the ground beside him.

Its rapidly spinning chain let out an unwilling, piercing scrape before slowly coming to a stop, like a dead steel beast.

Time seemed to freeze at that moment.

"Nar... uto?"

Sakura's lips trembled as she let out a broken sound.

Sasuke's pupils contracted to their limit.

His spinning Sharingan stared fixedly at Naruto Uzumaki's motionless body on the ground, as though he wanted to burn this scene into his mind forever.

How... was that possible?

Naruto Uzumaki, who had been as powerful as a god and as indestructible as steel...

Naruto Uzumaki, who had forcibly dragged him out of the abyss of fear and driven him to become stronger in the cruelest possible way...

Had actually... fallen?

That realization was a hundred, a thousand times more powerful than the fear Orochimaru had brought him.

It was the crushing sensation of the sky collapsing and the earth giving way.

Orochimaru did not even spare Naruto Uzumaki on the ground another glance.

He slowly retracted his elongated neck and turned around, his golden snake eyes locking once more onto Sasuke's stiff body.

The mocking, cat-and-mouse smile of a victor hung on his face as he extended his long tongue again and greedily licked his lips.

"Now..."

His steps were slow, one by one, treading upon Sasuke's shattered convictions as he closed in on the prey that could no longer move.

"No one will interrupt us anymore, my dear Sasuke."

Fear.

Boundless fear surged in from all directions like icy seawater, drowning Sasuke's mouth and nose and flooding into his lungs.

He wanted to pick up the Chainsword from the ground, to fight like Naruto Uzumaki, to tear apart the demon before him.

But his body was nailed in place by the neurotoxin and an even deeper fear. He could not move even a finger.

He could only watch helplessly.

Watch Orochimaru's neck once again stretch in a grotesque manner that defied the laws of physics.

Watch that pale, demonic face grow larger and larger in his vision.

Watch him open his mouth, revealing two rows of stark white teeth.

"Become mine."

"You will receive everything you desire... power!"

The demon's whisper sounded beside his ear.

The next second.

Squelch!

Sharp fangs viciously pierced Sasuke's neck.

An icy, utterly evil chakra surged wildly through the wound and into his body like the filthiest flood.

"Aaaahhhhhh—!"

A shriek so miserable it no longer sounded human tore through the forest's dead silence.

The agonizing pain, coupled with the vile sensation of his soul being defiled, instantly destroyed Sasuke's last shred of will.

His body convulsed violently. Three black Tomoe markings surfaced on his neck like living things, spun, and finally froze in place.

The light in Sasuke's eyes went out completely.

His body went limp, and he fell backward into boundless darkness.