Orochimaru's Curiosity! An Alliance Forged!

Zuo Hao looked at Orochimaru and, without the slightest hesitation, drew on the Kamui Dimension.

"Kamui!"

A piercing sound of space tearing rang out, and the smile froze on Orochimaru's face.

The space around him crumpled as if crushed by an invisible hand. A spiraling black passage split open in the void.

A second later, they appeared inside Zuo Hao's Kamui Dimension.

The sky was a gray-white void. There was no sun, no wind. The ground was a platform paved with cold stone that stretched beyond sight.

Layer upon layer of cubes floated in the void, like a vast maze with no exit.

Orochimaru landed at the center of the platform and brushed his pale fingers across the ground, his serpentine pupils narrowing.

"Space-Time Ninjutsu... So you had this hidden away, Zuo Hao. You're making me more curious by the minute."

He looked up as Zuo Hao's figure took shape out of the void and landed steadily ten paces away.

"Can you tell me what you want now?" Orochimaru rose without a trace of hostility. He even spread his hands. "Sahiro Uchiha."

Zuo Hao got straight to the point.

"Orochimaru, I want to work with you."

Orochimaru's slit pupils contracted.

To be honest, the boy had genuinely surprised him.

"Work together? Interesting." Orochimaru's voice was low and raspy, like a snake slipping through grass. "You're a Konoha Ninja, yet you want to work with a Rogue Ninja. What are you after?"

Zuo Hao raised his head. The Three Tomoe glinted blood-red in the gray-white light.

"I want to kill the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, with my own hands."

The air seemed to lose all its warmth.

The smile on Orochimaru's face spread little by little, then turned into a deep, body-shaking laugh.

"Hahahaha... Interesting. How very interesting! A Konoha Ninja saying he wants to kill the Hokage—and a member of the Uchiha Clan at that..."

His laughter stopped abruptly. His golden slit pupils fixed on Zuo Hao as though he meant to see straight through him.

"Why, Zuo Hao? I'm curious. Why do you want to kill that old man?"

Zuo Hao took a step forward.

His chakra no longer surged wildly. It felt compressed now, like a volcano on the verge of erupting.

"Because Konoha has rotted through."

Orochimaru's smile stiffened slightly.

"Why do you think the Uchiha Clan Massacre happened?"

"The Third Hokage... Hiruzen Sarutobi. He preaches the Will of Fire, but his hands are stained with his own people's blood."

"I don't just want to kill him. I want the people of Konoha to watch as the mask of the 'Strongest Hokage' is torn from the Third Hokage they worship, piece by piece, before their eyes."

Orochimaru fell silent.

After a moment, he gave a low chuckle, a breathy sound squeezed from deep in his throat, full of twisted admiration.

"Zuo Hao, you make my very blood... tremble." Orochimaru ran his long tongue over his lips. "All right. I agree with you. We can work together."

He stepped forward and lowered his voice until it sounded like a snake flicking its tongue.

"But I have one condition."

Zuo Hao lifted his chin. "Say it."

"I know you can't trust me completely, and I can't trust you completely. But until the Third Hokage is dead, we can each get what we want."

Orochimaru extended a pale hand, its long fingers resembling some precision metal instrument.

"You want to kill the Third Hokage yourself? Fine. But I want something too."

"What?"

A feverish, almost crazed light flashed in Orochimaru's eyes. "I want you to study the Sharingan with me."

Zuo Hao said nothing.

"Orochimaru, you never make a deal unless you come out ahead."

He reached out and gripped Orochimaru's icy hand firmly.

"But until our partnership is over, if you lay another finger on Sasuke, I'll use these eyes to drag you into a hell deeper than this place myself."

Excitement blazed in Orochimaru's slit pupils.

"Hehehe... What a frightening older brother. I like you more and more, Zuo Hao."

Zuo Hao released the icy hand and stepped back.

"Glad we could make a deal. I'll contact you again. Until then, leave us alone."

Orochimaru chuckled softly and said no more, save to lick his lips with his long tongue. "Then I'll wait for good news, Zuo Hao."

Zuo Hao ignored him. The air around him twisted again, and spiraling ripples enveloped him. The next instant, he vanished into the gray-white void.

Somewhere in the Forest of Death, Zuo Hao's figure took shape once more out of empty space.

The moment he landed, his chest tightened sharply.

It was a terrible premonition, as though an invisible wire had cinched hard around his heart.

He looked up almost by instinct, turning in one direction. Sasuke's chakra was moving—and fast.

Zuo Hao's face darkened at once.

Without stopping, he became a blur and sped in that direction.

But before he had gone a hundred meters, a ragged cry reached him through the gaps in the dense forest.

"Who are you... Let go of Sasuke!"

It was Sakura's voice, sharp and hoarse, on the verge of tears.

Zuo Hao's pupils contracted, and he surged forward even faster.

Deep in the forest, Team 7's resting spot had fallen into chaos.

Sakura knelt in the mud, both hands clamped around Sasuke's left arm so tightly her knuckles had gone white.

Her knees and elbows were scraped raw, her hair was disheveled, and tears mixed with dirt streamed down her cheeks.

"He's hurt! He can't move! You can't take him away!"

Two Anbu Ninjas wearing animal masks held Sasuke up between them, half carrying, half dragging him. His heels gouged two deep furrows in the ground.

The Cursed Seal on the back of his neck glowed dark purple. The venomous power Orochimaru had left behind was still searing through his nerves.

He could barely lift his head, but his lips still moved faintly.

"Let... let go..."

"Move." The lead Anbu Ninja's voice was cold, and the eyes behind the mask held no warmth. "These are Lord Hokage's orders. Orochimaru has infiltrated the Forest of Death. Sasuke Uchiha was attacked and injured. We must take him back to the village immediately for his protection."

"You're lying!" Naruto scrambled out from among the tree roots, blood filling his mouth. He staggered forward and spread his arms in front of the ANBU. "If you're so good at protecting people, why didn't you come sooner? Why show up only after that snake-skinned freak left?!"

Before he could steady himself, an Anbu Ninja flashed forward, drove a knee into his chest, and slammed him into the mud.

Naruto's back hit the ground. He grunted, blood frothing at his lips, but clung to the Anbu Ninja's wrist so tightly that veins stood out across his hand. "I said... let Sasuke go!"

"Naruto!" Sasuke forced the words through clenched teeth. "Don't... worry about me..."

"Shut up! We're teammates!" Naruto roared, his eyes red and his voice breaking with tears.

He struggled to summon the chakra inside him, but Orochimaru's Five Elements Seal stood like a solid iron wall, blocking all his power.

His sense of the Nine-Tails had been cut off completely.

"Damn it... damn it!" Naruto slammed his fist into the ground, spraying dirt.

Sakura clutched Sasuke's clothes and refused to let go.

"Please... he's badly hurt... You can't do this..."