“So, you came alone after all.”

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the implied insult. “What, you thought I was lying when I said I would?”

Orochimaru smirked. “Nothing against you personally, demon child, but in my experience Konoha shinobi have no problem disregarding their honor when it comes to dealing with someone such as myself, no matter how moral they usually consider themselves.”

“It’s Naruto. And I’m not a Konoha shinobi anymore.” The last sentence came out surprisingly bitter.

The snake sannin’s dark grin deepened. “Tsunade threw you away? How amusing. You seemed so confident earlier that she would support you in this endeavor, but I suppose you aren’t as high on her list of priorities as you thought.”

The was a noticeable pause before the blond shinobi responded, and even then, the words that next came out of his mouth were strained. “The Godaime had no choice. I deliberately disobeyed her orders by meeting with you the first time. She already gave me a second chance. It’s not her fault I wasted it.”

“Mm. She fails to provide you with adequate protection, then deliberately puts obstacles in your way when you attempt to remedy your problem yourself? Your continual defense of her is nothing short of pathetic, Naruto-kun.”

The thing Naruto had recently started noticing about Orochimaru was the contradiction his appearance and voice presented. The snake sannin did in many ways resemble a serpent, what with the golden eyes and thin face, but Orochimaru didn’t hiss. He purred, making every word, no matter how seemingly innocent, sound somehow suggestive of something else. Naruto was hard pressed to tell whether this was intentional. And in all truth, he didn’t care. With Orochimaru, you didn’t listen to the tone so much as the words, because the sannin could make ordering a plate of sushi sound more menacing than a death threat, and often did. Which was precisely why Naruto had refused to meet at a restaurant after the first time. There were really only so many waitresses you could go through in a meal.

All this meant, of course, was that Naruto was still perfectly able to take offense when Orochimaru insulted him. As he just had. “Even though I think a lot of Konoha’s policies are stupid, it doesn’t mean I’m going to sit here and let you insult the old woman. I knew what I was getting into when I left Konoha. And I’m not meeting with you to protect myself. If I wanted to do that, I’d just disappear.”

Orochimaru’s eyes glittered. Naruto had yet to figure out whether that was intentional, either. “Succumbing to feelings of vengeance, are you, Naruto-kun? And after all Sasuke-kun told me of your laudable efforts to detract him from his own path. Rather hypocritical, don’t you think?”

“Sasuke was leaving his friends behind. There’s nothing for me now in Konoha. Besides, he didn’t know what he was getting into, the prideful bastard, and that’s what got him killed. I know exactly what I’m doing.”

“All Sasuke-kun was trying to do was kill one Akatsuki. You’re going after all nine, and you think you have a better chance?”

“That’s why I’m here. Now that Sasuke’s dead, you’re never going to get the Sharingan, and since that Akatsuki have eight of the nine jinchuuriki, you’re next on their list. You want the Akatsuki dead as much as I do. And I am going to kill them. All of them.”

Orochimaru raised one eyebrow. “Awfully confident, aren’t you, Naruto-kun. Any particular reason?”

“I’m confident because I know you’re not going to say no.”

Naruto met Orochimaru’s gaze evenly as the dark-haired sannin looked the younger man over. The picture Sasuke had painted of the blond shinobi during his three year apprenticeship had been one of a foolish and hopelessly naïve child, one who only succeeded through pure luck and by relying on the demon inside of him. But then, Sasuke wasn’t the most reliable person when it came to collecting impartial information. Naïve the jinchuuriki might have been, once, but four years had passed since Sasuke’s departure from Konoha, and loss had a tendency to destroy innocence. And by all reports, Naruto had lost almost everything. His mentors, his teammates, and the majority of all others close to him. All that remained now of the child was the determination. Everything else had been replaced by either bitterness or the demon’s essence. Even now, the blond shinobi’s eyes glowed red, slitted in the near darkness.

After a few minutes, Orochimaru allowed himself a satisfied smirk. An innocent child he couldn’t work with, but a demon was another matter. “You do realize that even between the two of us, we couldn’t hope to take on the entirety of the Akatsuki.”

“Of course not. The Akatsuki only travel in pairs. We can take them down two at a time.”

So the boy had already made plans. Orochimaru couldn’t decide whether to be irritated by the blond’s impetuousness or pleased at his forethought. “That will only work once. They aren’t stupid. They will not be careless after several of their number are dead.”

Naruto shrugged, and the ghost of a grin that momentarily graced his mouth glinted slightly as the fading sunlight reflected off sharpened teeth. “We’ll just have to be smarter, then.”

While Orochimaru had to admit to a certain amount of satisfaction when he impaled his former partner with the Kusanagi and watched the puppeteer bleed to death on the ground, his attention was only partially focused on Sasori. The former Sand-nin had greatly expanded his repertoire of puppets since they had parted ways eleven years ago, but Sasori had a tendency to vary on similar themes and lacked true innovation when it came to designing his weapons, so there had been an almost disappointing lack of surprises in their battle. In the end, observing the Kyuubi boy try to tear Deidara apart turned out to be a far more interesting enterprise.

Even during their first encounter in the Forest of Death, Naruto’s chakra capacity had been unbelievable, though almost entirely uncontrolled. Now…

Orochimaru watched Naruto blast through Deidara’s magnificently ugly farce of a bird with a blaze of blue chakra, the Big Ball Rasengan narrowly missing its intended target and instead destroying the flying monstrosity with a rather impressive explosion, sending both blond shinobi flying in opposite directions. Deidara landed heavily, but Naruto hardly seemed to notice the impact, and kept his unnerving red eyes fixed upon his opponent. Orochimaru smirked. ((Looks like Jiraiya managed to teach the brat something useful after all.))

It only took the former Leaf-nin a few seconds to recover from the fall, and before Deidara had even gotten his bearings, Naruto was already moving. At first, the explosion specialist seemed unsure of himself, his left eye visibly twitching, but the look of apprehension quickly turned into a vicious grin when Naruto, less than ten yards away from the Akatsuki, stepped on something hidden in the sand and the ground imploded around him.

((Hm. An explosion trap. Clever. I didn’t even see him set it up.)) Apparently, neither had Naruto, but though decent planning wasn’t apparently the jinchuuriki’s forte, stamina was. Deidara was still smiling in his usual sadistic satisfaction when Naruto appeared out of the smoke and tore the Akatsuki’s throat out bare-handed, the sound that accompanied the action not even remotely human.

Naruto snarled, crouched on all fours and breathing harshly, as Deidara uselessly tried to stem the flow of blood gushing in streams out of the hole in his neck. Underneath the growl that next came out of the jinchuuriki’s mouth, words could barely be made out. “That one was for Gaara.” What happened next startled even Orochimaru, as Naruto reached towards the Akatsuki with his right hand and casually ripped out Deidara’s eyes out of their sockets simultaneously with the tips of his claws. When Naruto next spoke, his voice sounded broken. “This one’s for Kakashi.” The former Stone-nin was no longer capable of screaming, but the pathetic whimpers that escaped instead were almost worse.

Deidara was still writhing, still painfully alive, when Naruto stood up and calmly walked over to where Orochimaru was leaning against a rock outcropping. It wasn’t until then that Orochimaru noticed the blood leaking out of a substantial hole in the jinchuuriki’s side. “So the explosion caught you after all. And here I was thinking you managed to get out of the fight completely unscathed, Naruto-kun.”

The blond shinobi’s voice had almost completely reverted to normal, but still possessed an unnerving element of inhumanity when he replied, “You could have helped, you know.”

“What, and ruin your fun? My manners are better than that, Naruto-kun.”

The jinchuuriki snorted and began to lick the blood off his claws. Orochimaru couldn’t help but wince, not out of disgust but some lingering sense of propriety that he had never quite managed to get rid of.

Okay, maybe a little bit out of disgust. There were still bits of eyeball attached to the former Leaf-nin’s nails. “Must you do that?”

Naruto grinned, the sight made morbid by the blood now staining his mouth. “What? Does it make you uncomfortable, Orochimaru?”

“It’s unsanitary.”

The former Leaf-nin let out another derisive snort. “Germs are the last thing I need to worry about.” He continued his rather grisly grooming ritual, but not before sending a challenging smirk in Orochimaru’s direction. The snake sannin felt himself involuntarily bristle. Naruto had obviously learned more than techniques from Jiraiya. Like how to get under Orochimaru’s skin.

The older shinobi tried to distract himself from his annoying accomplice by wiping down the Kusanagi, but all the jinchuuriki did was make himself more obvious. Orochimaru gritted his teeth and ignored him.

After a few minutes, Naruto apparently felt he had bothered the snake sannin enough (that or his claws were finally clean) and went rummaging through his pack for some bandages. Orochimaru, forgetting his prior irritation, raised one eyebrow as the blond shinobi pulled off his shirt and started to rub disinfectant into the wound in his side before wrapping his torso in the sanitized cloth. The damage to the jinchuuriki appeared even more severe than it had when Orochimaru first noticed it.

“It is unfortunate that you were injured, Naruto-kun. I hope it will not substantially slow you down.”

It was with a mouth full of bandages that Naruto replied, “I’ll be good by tomorrow.” The cloth ripped easily as the former Leaf-nin pulled roughly with his teeth, and Naruto finished taping himself up before returning the wraps to his bag.

“I don’t believe that wound will be healed by tomorrow, Naruto-kun. Not unless Tsunade is somewhere in the vicinity.”

Naruto shrugged. “I always heal overnight.”

For a moment, the sunlight shone directly into the jinchuuriki’s eyes, and the pupils contracted into recently familiar red slits. Suddenly the blond shinobi’s assertion seemed a lot more plausible. “The Kyuubi.”

“Well, yeah.” The former Leaf-nin sat himself down in the sand and began pulling more supplies out of his pack. Within a few minutes, a small fire was well on its way to boiling the pot of water situated over it, Naruto standing by with his instant ramen in hand. Orochimaru rolled his eyes. It never failed. The boy was obsessed with the food, had in fact eaten it at every meal during their thus-far two week partnership, excluding that one notable night the restaurant hadn’t served ramen and Naruto had ordered an exceedingly rare steak. Orochimaru still hadn’t gotten the bloodstains out of his purple kimono.

The jinchuuriki glanced up from momentarily from his inhalation of the salty noodles to mumble through a full mouth, “Hey, Orochimaru, you want some?”

“No.”

“What, you eating those rice balls again? Don’t they get boring?”

The snake sannin shot his traveling companion an incredulous look. “You’ve been eating the exact same flavor of ramen for over a fortnight.”

“Yeah? So?”

Either Naruto truly didn’t get it (all too possible. The blond shinobi was occasionally so dense Orochimaru was convinced of brain damage), or he was trying to be annoying again. Either way, it didn’t really pay to explain to the boy the irony of the situation.

Orochimaru was only halfway through his own dinner when the jinchuuriki, having sat still for something less than ten minutes, decided he was bored. Which meant, in Orochimaru’s experience, that Naruto wanted to talk. At length. Usually about nothing of any relevance at all. It was times like this that the snake sannin wished the blond shinobi would just leave the demon on at all times instead of letting his adolescence surface whenever he wasn’t trying to kill someone.

“Hey, Orochimaru… you can have Itachi, if you want.”

Considering the last Uchiha had been the major sticking point in their negotiations, Orochimaru was caught off guard by the non sequitur. “What? Why?”

Naruto shrugged. “I’ve decided that I don’t really care Itachi killed Sasuke. You do, so… you can have him.”

Orochimaru smirked to cover up his uneasiness about where their conversation was going. The jinchuuriki wasn’t naturally very generous. There had to be a catch. “As I recall, Naruto-kun, the reason I finally conceded Itachi to you is that the Kyuubi would make it difficult for the mangekyou Sharingan to successfully work on your mind. Is there something you forgot to tell me?”

The blond shinobi’s eyes narrowed, and the red abruptly darkened to a color Orochimaru could only compare to dried blood. “I didn’t say you had to fight him. I said you could kill him. You’d do better against Kisame, anyway. The Samehada works too well against me at close range.”

“And I suppose there’s something you want in exchange, Naruto-kun?”

Naruto grinned, but a mouthful of bloodstained, razor-sharp teeth made the expression appear more threatening than friendly. “I don’t, but the Kyuubi is getting a little… you know. Edgy.”

Orochimaru had always been adept at observing changes in the chakra of shinobi, but just then the snake sannin wished he’d neglected that particular skill. Uzumaki Naruto’s chakra as of late tended towards a light violet shade, a mix of the human and demon life forces, whenever the former Leaf-nin felt his life wasn’t in immediate danger. Watching the blue leech itself out of the boy’s chakra, watching Naruto willingly give up most of his control to the Kyuubi when there weren’t enemies present, was one of the most disquieting things Orochimaru had seen in years. In the corner of his mind, the snake sannin retracted his prior irritation with the human side of the blond shinobi and started wishing fervently for its rapid return. “Naruto-kun, what do you think you’re doing?”

Naruto spoke as if he hadn’t heard him. “Blood in the air and nothing around to kill always makes him edgy. Blood’s everywhere, right now. There’s even some on you, Orochimaru.”

Wait a second, that didn’t make any sense. He hadn’t allowed any of Sasori’s blood to touch him when he-

It was then that Orochimaru noticed, rather belatedly, something sticky on his left cheek. He touched his face only to realize that one of Sasori’s attacks hadn’t missed as cleanly as he had thought, as a clean cut ran horizontally starting right below his eye, the minor injury stopping short an inch before his ear. The blood was his, even if the pain had never registered, and the jinchuuriki’s grin had darkened.

Abruptly the snake sannin’s unease turned to anger. He couldn’t believe he was allowing himself to be intimidated by a child who hadn’t even been born yet when he left Konoha. But a fight here and now would benefit no one, and Orochimaru forced himself to relax and meet the blond shinobi’s eyes evenly. “Thank you for the offer, Naruto-kun, but I would just as soon leave Itachi to you.”

Whatever the Kyuubi wanted, this didn’t seem to be the opening he was looking for, for in response Naruto just snorted and again went rooting through his pack, this time for his sleeping bag. “Whatever.” Blue again seeped into the boy’s chakra, and the snake sannin felt himself let out a quiet breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding.

Orochimaru didn’t allow himself to fall asleep that night. Some foxes were nocturnal.

/He smells good, don’t you think, Naruto?/

Naruto hissed viciously under his breath and tried to ignore his demon tenant, though of late that had become increasingly difficult. From the other side of the clearing, Orochimaru momentarily glanced up from the scroll he was perusing, but the snake sannin quickly returned to his reading when his senses didn’t register a threat.

/I wonder how he would taste./

((Probably like a corpse. Shut up.))

Of course, the Kyuubi paid no attention to Naruto’s order. /Rather arrogant for a human, but the insolent ones are always the prettiest when they’re on their knees-/

((I think I preferred it when you wanted to kill him.))

The Kyuubi’s presence practically radiated amusement. /It was a sensible stance for me to take when Orochimaru presented a threat to our mutual existence. Now, of course, there are other options./

When the implications of the Kyuubi’s words finally sunk in, Naruto’s eyes went wide. Having apparently decided that Naruto was just having an episode, the snake sannin didn’t even look from his scroll when the younger shinobi across from him started to gag. ((You’ve got to be joking. Shit, Orochimaru is old enough to be my grandfather. That’s disgusting.))

/In comparison to the thousands of years I’ve lived, Orochimaru’s measly half century of existence is nothing. Besides, his chronological age is of no matter. His current body is hardly any older than yours. And I believe he is attractive, in the manner of your kind./

((Sure, if you like the thin, pale, creepy type. Which I don’t.))

The Kyuubi was becoming impatient. Naruto didn’t like to think about how easy it had become recently to tell. /Why are you just starting to protest now? Three days ago you seemed perfectly happy to go along with my suggestions./

((Three days ago I thought you were kidding. I only let you have control because I wanted to yank Orochimaru’s chain. I didn’t know you actually wanted to… you know. I never would’ve helped you out if I’d known-))

/Child, to suddenly believe for absolutely no reason that I’d developed a sense of humor is complete idiocy, and even you aren’t that stupid. You knew exactly what I was doing. You agreed with my actions. You and I are far too much a part of each other now to not have some of the same desires. You could smell his blood in the air, and it made you just as hungry as I. It is natural for us to want to dominate such a person before he takes the initiative, for neither you nor I have it within us to capitulate to one whom we know is our inferior in strength. This foolish self-doubt, this second guessing, is exactly what makes your species weaker than my own, and what makes it so easy for my kind to despise yours./

((It was one of my ‘weak’ species that defeated you.))

/How amusing that you think so. The Yondaime is dead, and I am not, and yet you still proclaim him the victor./

((I won’t go along with this.))

The Kyuubi laughed. /I don’t expect you to. Not now. You are far too stubborn to agree with me so easily. But there will be another battle soon. Let us see if you can restrain yourself then. With my power rushing through your veins, I sincerely doubt it./

((If you think there’s any chance I’ll ever help you again, you’ve got another thing coming-))

“Naruto-kun.”

At the sound of Orochimaru’s voice, Naruto blinked, and abruptly found himself in the clearing instead of in his own head. While the sky was somewhat darker than it had been before his argument with the Kyuubi had begun, it was the sight of the Kusanagi in the snake sannin’s grip that truly threw Naruto off.

“Hey, Orochimaru, what’s with the sword?”

Orochimaru ignored the question. “If you don’t calm your aura down immediately, I’m afraid I’ll be terminating this partnership.”

“What? Why?”

“You should save the demon for battle, Naruto-kun. The rest of the time, the presence of the Kyuubi is… superfluous.”

Naruto bristled at the older shinobi’s condescending tone. Inside his head, the Kyuubi was grinning. /The arrogant ones are always the prettiest, Naruto…/

((Shut up.))

Outloud, Naruto snorted. “The Kyuubi isn’t exactly something I can turn on and off. He’s always there. You’ll just have to get used to him.”

Orochimaru’s eyes narrowed. “You allow the demon to control you?”

“This is my body. He is simply an occupant, not the master.”

/Liar./

Even if it wasn’t true, Orochimaru seemed to believe it. His grip on the Kusanagi relaxed immediately, but his eyes remained guarded. “Just try to contain yourself, Naruto-kun. The fluctuation of your chakra is distracting.”

/He’s afraid of us./

((Will you just shut up?))

Orochimaru was still waiting for an answer. Naruto finally decided it would be less troubling to give him one. “Yeah, whatever.”

After a few minutes, the snake sannin finally returned to his scroll, though the Kusanagi’s close proximity gave a hint as to Orochimaru’s unease. Naruto lay down on his back and closed his eyes.

((I’ll be glad when this is over.))

/No, you won’t./

Naruto didn’t bother to contradict him.

Considering how much planning had gone into their attack, Naruto couldn’t believe how completely the whole thing had fallen apart. They had been tracking their second Akatsuki partnership for two days, having come up with counters to all the techniques Orochimaru knew they used and planned what to do when the Akatsuki revealed new jutsus. They had even decided the perfect place for an encounter. The one thing they hadn’t bargained for was the Akatsuki becoming aware of their presence and devising strategies accordingly, which was why Naruto had found himself fighting the wrong opponent in the middle of a forest at three o’clock in the morning.

It wasn’t long before the Kyuubi became impatient. /Enough./

The Kyuubi, Naruto couldn’t help but notice, had terrible timing, as Naruto was currently less than five feet from his (extremely large) opponent with a charged up Rasengan and was having difficulty dodging as it was. ((Don’t-))

The demon took no notice of Naruto’s protestations and quite smoothly yanked control of Naruto’s body out from under him, the Rasengan immediately tripling size and darkening to a rather eye-numbing purple. With Naruto’s mouth, the Kyuubi grinned. Inside his own head, Naruto was screaming. ((We can’t win like this! This guy is guarded against direct taijutsu attacks. You can’t possibly hope-))

/You will not dictate to me what I can and cannot do. Now be silent./ Naruto felt the air of a very large scythe missing by a hair as the Kyuubi rolled to the side and quite nonchalantly shoved the Rasengan through the Akatsuki’s back, neatly taking out the man’s lungs. For a moment, the enormous shinobi stared at Naruto in incomprehension before finally coming to the realization that he was no longer alive. For a moment, the Kyuubi and Naruto alike stared at their opponent’s prostate corpse.

The silence didn’t last long, for all no words were spoken. /Killing my opponent constitutes a victory./

((You got lucky. This guy was an imbecile. He shouldn’t have fallen for such a simple maneuver.))

/You are not very gracious in defeat, Naruto./

((I didn’t lose.)) Naruto tore his body from the Kyuubi’s grasp without further ado, claws retracting and the red glow finally fading from his eyes, but not as much as it used to, before the beginning of this unholy crusade. His nails remained unnaturally sharp, his pupils slitted. ((I’m not human anymore.)) The thought didn’t hurt as much as it should have. It was impossible to be shamed about such a thing when your sole remaining ally had crossed the line that separated men from gods so long ago that he no longer remembered what it was like to be truly mortal. Speaking of which… Naruto took a deep breath in through his nose. The wind was dead so late at night, but the scent of blood always carried.

/Worried?/

((No.)) It only took a moment to decipher distance and direction. Orochimaru was fairly close, but not so much that the sounds of battle could be heard. Naruto was unworried. Most shinobi encounters were completely silent anyway.

/Or the fight is over./

((All the better.))

The Kyuubi’s prediction started to seem more and more likely the closer Naruto came to the smell of blood. The forest was absolutely silent. Unusually so, as if all the animals had fled. Which, if Naruto thought about it, they probably had. Beasts were far more sensible than humans when it came to survival. However, even if the skirmish had reached its conclusion, Naruto remained on guard. Considering the circumstances under which the night had begun, there was no guarantee the snake sannin was the victor. But the jinchuuriki’s rather grim expectations were allayed when he reached the battlefield and finally got close enough to the body on the ground to tell it wasn’t Orochimaru’s. The Akatsuki’s corpse wasn’t the bloody mess Naruto had expected from all the blood he smelled in the air. From the way the skin had grown swollen around the eyes, the blond shinobi’s best guess was a death by poison, not through blood loss or damage to the organs.

Despite the Akatsuki’s best efforts at a surprise attack, neither of them had survived. But the one thing they had succeeded in was separating their opponents. Orochimaru was no where in sight.

((Ah hell.)) Naruto sighed and glanced around at had once been a forest and was now a clearing, his eyes finally falling upon a blood trail that started several yards away. The only problem with this lead was that it ended where the trees began, and Orochimaru was far too experienced a shinobi to leave behind any erasable traces of his passage. To make matters worse, it was that moment that the clouds rolled over the starless sky and water started to fall in torrents, covering up what little might have been left behind and badly muting Naruto’s senses. It was one of many reasons Naruto hated the rain.

Still, the blood was all Naruto had to work with, especially now that his nose and ears were near useless. So it was in the direction the blood trail led that Naruto moved, silently cursing Orochimaru under his breath all the way.

((Why the hell did the bastard have to hide himself away?))

/Orochimaru isn’t stupid. He’s wounded and he has no assurances you were successful. Find him. Blood loss makes humans careless. As aware as he is of his own vulnerability, Orochimaru will make a mistake./

((Could you make that sound a little less ominous?))

Inside Naruto’s head, the Kyuubi smiled. /No./

Quickly banishing the thought that it might actually be a better idea to leave Orochimaru to his own devices for a few days/Want to protect him from me, do you Naruto?/ the jinchuuriki walked along the forest floor. It wasn’t long before the storm worsened, and Naruto was quickly drenched.

((Damn the rain.))

All too soon, wandering through what seemed to be an endless ocean of trees in the pitch darkness caused what little optimism the blond shinobi possessed to completely desert him.

“This is hopeless. How can I possibly find anyone in this?”

“Revealing your presence is a start, Naruto-kun.”

Spooked at the unexpected voice, the jinchuuriki spun on his heels, a kunai snatched from his holster and the Kyuubi’s presence jumping to the forefront. The sight of Orochimaru, his clothing stained red from blood and leaning heavily on the Kusanagi, his breathing ragged and erratic, unexpectedly made Naruto’s mouth go dry. The kunai slipped from his grip, landing soundlessly on the grass.

The Kyuubi, his voice sounding amused and much closer than it should have, murmured/This is a strange form of concern./

“O-Orochimaru?”

“It seems,” and the snake sannin attempted to push himself into an upright position, but failed miserably, only just keeping himself from losing his footing, “That you faired better than I.”

Blood had never bothered Naruto. As of late, he had even grown a taste for it. But seeing Orochimaru like this… so uncharacteristically weak, barely able to stand, his hair dripping scarlet clear in front of those familiar golden eyes… Naruto was startled to realize he was shaking.

The Kyuubi whispered (close, far too close) next to his ear. /Now you see it./

((I… I…))

Just by the way the demon’s presence shifted, Naruto could tell the Kyuubi was disgusted. /Your foolish remnants of human restraint have grown tiring. I will not tolerate this any longer. We have waited long enough./

((No! Stop!))

Orochimaru’s eyes narrowed as he noticed the jinchuuriki’s hands spasm wildly, and red chakra shuddered over the boy’s form. “What do you think you’re-”

“No.” When Naruto’s eyes lifted, his gaze glowed crimson. “I will not stop, Naruto. And I will never listen to your idiotic human prattle again. I have waited years, and no one will deny me. Not you,” and the warrior that held no traces of that familiar blue in his aura took a step towards the older shinobi. “And not you, Orochimaru.”

Before Orochimaru had time to register what had happened inside the body of what had once been Uzumaki Naruto, the red-eyed fighter had pulled the Kusanagi out of his weak grip and flung the sword into the undergrowth. The snake sannin felt bark scrape against his back as the shorter man carelessly grasped the front of Orochimaru’s kimono between his hands and slammed the dark-haired shinobi against a nearby tree. Distantly, Orochimaru felt one of the barely healed lacerations between his shoulder-blades break open and start to bleed. It was unthinkingly, instinctually, that the sannin aimed a blow towards Naruto’s left temple, but the younger man caught his fist easily, effortlessly twisting the dark-haired shinobi’s wrist until Orochimaru heard a crack that pierced through the sound of rain falling on leaves. He could only grit his teeth at the sharp pain that soon followed, not daring to take his eyes off his (not ally. Not enemy either, for that implied equality, and this situation was anything but) captor.

The blond shinobi leaned in close to Orochimaru’s ear, compensating for his lack of height easily by pulling the sannin down to his level. The Kyuubi’s words came out in a satisfied purr. “Stop fighting me. You and I both know I have the upper hand here. Defiance will only make this more unpleasant for you.” The jinchuuriki illustrated his point by languidly running his tongue across Orochimaru’s neck, licking away the dried blood that had clotted the lesion running lengthwise across the sannin’s throat. Orochimaru was sickened to realize the action had caused his pulse to quicken. This may have been a scenario that had been cropping up in his nightmares of late, but his body didn’t know that, and had memories of more pleasant times under far too similar circumstances. The sannin watched with growing dread as the blond shinobi’s grin darkened. The boy’s senses were far too attuned for him not to notice as well.

“Stop this, Naruto.”

Slowly, but with obvious pleasure, the Kyuubi caressed Orochimaru’s cheek. Orochimaru felt himself swallow. “I am no more Naruto than you are, though for all his protests, he wanted this far more than I did.” The hand on Orochimaru’s face trailed down the sannin’s side, stopping lightly on one of the larger wounds inflicted in the earlier battle with the Akatsuki, seemingly years ago but in reality only hours. “The odd thing about you humans is that for all your tongues lie incessantly, your bodies are far more straightforward.” The blond shinobi with casual cruelty pressed one sharpened nail against the bleeding gash, causing Orochimaru to flinch. “You,” the Kyuubi explained smoothly, “Are enjoying this.” And it was then that the demon forced the sannin’s mouth open and pushed his tongue down the taller man’s throat, cutting off Orochimaru’s hiss of pain as Naruto’s claws dug deeper into his side.

It wasn’t long before spots began to appear in the dark-haired shinobi’s vision. In a small corner of his mind that had somehow managed to remain unaffected by the goings on of the outside world, Orochimaru couldn’t help but try and categorize exactly how much blood he had lost in the past hour, and how much longer he could hope to remain conscious. The darkness all too soon (not soon enough) began to close in, and Orochimaru closed his eyes, not even bothering any longer to put up a token resistance as his body relaxed into the Kyuubi’s grasp. He wondered if it was possible to force himself to wake up dead.

When the blond haired shinobi’s tongue withdrew from his mouth only a few seconds later, the sannin unwillingly opened his eyes. It took all the strength of will Orochimaru had left to not collapse to the ground as the shorter man released his grip on the sannin’s kimono and staggered backwards, his claws reaching slowly, tortuously, towards his own throat. The boy’s eyes flashed blue. What next came out of Naruto’s mouth was fragmented, and almost painfully rough. “No… I won’t let you do this… never…”

Orochimaru watched, fascinated despite himself, as Naruto’s voice deepened to a growl. “You have no choice-”

The former Leaf-nin’s hands finally closed around his neck. “There’s… always… a choice.” And it was then that Naruto began to squeeze.

However, it was inside the blond shinobi’s head that the majority of the conversation was really going on. /You are willing to kill yourself to stop me from doing what you want as badly as I?/

((Not like this. Never like this.))

/Idiocy! You gave up your humanity when you took up this murderous crusade, and yet you still let human mores dictate your actions./

((I am neither human, nor a god. But it doesn’t matter. Whatever I have become, I will not allow this to happen.))

/If you die now, your comrades will never be avenged. You will have allowed them to die for nothing!/

It was then, for the first time in months, that Naruto thought of them. Sakura. Kakashi. Gaara. The old woman. Jiraiya. And even, maybe, Sasuke. His grip on his neck tightened. ((Better that they die for nothing than to die in the memory of a monster. I may not survive to kill the Akatsuki, but neither will you.))

/Stop! You fool-/ The Kyuubi’s desperate pleadings were cut off so suddenly that Naruto inadvertently loosened his chokehold on his throat. The first breath he took ended in a wet hack as the blond shinobi tried to force air through a partially crushed windpipe. When the coughing fit finally ended, Naruto was finally able to focus on what was in front of him. He was startled to realize it was Orochimaru, one hand pressed to a wound positioned right below his ribcage and his gaze wary.

“Naruto, who am I talking to now?”

“Uh…” It sounded like a trick question. “Me?”

Relief quite starkly entered the sannin’s eyes right before the dark-haired shinobi unceremoniously took two steps back and collapsed against the same tree he had been held against moments earlier. “So my seal worked, then. That should take care of your little demon problem for a while.”

“Seal?”

Orochimaru closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the bark. “I sealed the Kyuubi. It will unfortunately restrict your access to his power until I can figure out how to give you the demon’s strength without the troublesome bonus of his presence, but we can afford to take some time off before it becomes necessary to kill another pair of Akatsuki.”

Naruto was having trouble processing something. “If you could seal him so easily, why didn’t you do so before?”

One of the sannin’s eyes cracked open. “You were the one who informed me that you had the demon perfectly under control.”

Naruto felt himself blush. “Yeah… guess not.”

“This will not happen again.”

“No.”

Orochimaru again closed his eyes. For a moment, the rain was allowed to fall in silence, but Naruto had too many things to say to let the peace reign for long. “I… I don’t know exactly how this happened-”

“According to the Kyuubi, you desired me as well and thus your resistance wasn’t as great as it could have been, so it was easy for him to take over.”

Naruto’s blush darkened. “Well… maybe. But I have to make up for this somehow. You can still kill Itachi, if you want. No strings attached this time.”

“I have a better idea. As pleasant as blood play can occasionally be, I am not a masochist. How about next time, we wait until I’m uninjured to try anything rough?”

Naruto was far too tired from his mental travails to even make a go of acting surprised. “Agreed. But I still get to top.”