#discarded draft

Oboro wasn’t sure what was happening, but he was sure that he had expected to hurt a lot more after having a building dropped on him. Sure, he felt a little weird, but he wasn’t in pain, and he had expected to be, given the givens.

There was no pain, but his scalp felt buzzy in an unfamiliar way. His fingers twitched like there was something that he was supposed to be able to do with them that he couldn’t recall. The clouds that hovered in the edges of his mind felt heavier than normal, waterlogged and close to the ground.

What was going on?

It took more effort than he would’ve liked to pry his eyelids open, and when he did, he still had more questions.

The lights were bright, so bright, but not the long tubes of hospital lighting. When he tilted his head to the side, he could see equipment of all kinds, some of it covered in grime that Oboro didn’t want to think about the origins of. There was some kind of organic odor that he couldn’t - or didn’t want to - place, unable to hide behind the faint scent of lemon. Aside from that, there wasn’t that overwhelming chemical disinfectant smell one expected from a medical setting.

Was he in… a lab?

What was going on?

It took a moment to sit up. His limbs felt heavy and a bit stiff, but otherwise he wasn’t in any pain.

“Good, it worked. You’re awake,” a voice jerked Oboro’s attention away from the surroundings and towards one particular point. There was a man here, in the lab, with tousled white hair and eyes as red as blood. He looked pleased, and it sent a shiver up Oboro’s spine.

“Where… am I?” Oboro asked, the words coming out raspy. He hadn’t realized before that he was quite so parched.

“This is the Doctor’s lab,” the man gestured at the space, “And you, of course, are his most recent experiment. He will be disappointed he wasn’t here when you woke, but he does still have a day job. Tell me, what do you remember? I shall have to relay to him every detail.”

“I’m - what?”

An experiment? Oboro ignored the man’s question, instead lifting up his hands to see if he could find any difference between them now and how he remembered them before. He spotted a couple of jagged scars on his forearms, but they looked… well, they looked too organic to be the product of an operation. Maybe from the building that fell on him?

“Pay attention,” the white haired man growled, and Oboro’s attention snapped back up. “You are our first attempt at a more complex Nomu. I need to know what you remember, understand?”

The man stalked closer, reaching out to tilt Oboro’s chin up with his fingertips.

Oboro gulped.

“I - the last thing I remember… a building fell on me?”

“You remember the moment of your death?”

“My - my what?” Oboro knew his voice had pitched up, knew that his pupils had grown small, knew that his heart was hammering in his chest, and all he could think was How am I here if I died?

“Yes,” the man slid his hand around to cup Oboro’s cheek, a wicked grin spread across his face, “You died. Then the Doctor and I took your body to create a Nomu. I must say, I am… quite pleased with how you’ve turned out.”

Oboro swallowed a whimper, letting the man manhandle him like he was the judge of a dog show, and Oboro the hapless contestant. “Is… is a Nomu like a zombie?”

The man scoffed. “You are more than a mere zombie. Powerful and crafted for a purpose, Nomu like yourself have multiple quirks - although I’m surprised that you took the two I gave you as well as you did.”

“Wh-why?” Oboro shuddered, shelving the fact that he had two more quirks now along with holy shit I’m a living corpse in order to freak out about them later.

“Did you not hear me?” the man teased, “You were made for a purpose. You will fulfill that purpose, or else you might find that another building falls on your head.”

“Y-you -”

“Ah, perhaps I should introduce myself. I am All For One, the world’s most dangerous supervillain since the Junko Enoshima, Queen of Despair! And you, Oboro Shirakumo - no, you, Kurogiri - have found yourself in my employ as the new babysitter! Congratulations, I do believe.”

What.

“I - I didn’t apply?”

“Of course not. I selected you,” All For One twisted his fingers into Oboro’s hair, and suddenly, his voice was inside Oboro’s head oh God -

“Why do you think a building fell on your head?”

All For One pulled away, smirking, leaving Oboro reeling from the knowledge that his death was just… just a way to recruit him? And All For One could get into his head? And - And -

“I… I don’t have any other options, do I?”

Context: Legend (here still called ‘Link’) and Ravio are in the infirmary at the Castle, waiting for news about a patient. Pre-relationship.

Link wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that, but eventually Ravio stopped shaking. His arms wrapped around Link, his fingers clung to the back of Link’s shirt, and Link would be lying through his teeth if he said that it didn’t make his heart stutter and halt, and then leap in a hundred inappropriate directions at once.

When his knees started to hurt from kneeling on the tiled floors for so long, he was almost grateful. “Ravi’?”

Ravio hummed.

“I’m getting old, Ravi’.”

Ravio leaned back, though his hands remained on Link’s back. His eyes and nose were red and swollen, there were dried tear tracks down his cheeks, and he looked completely exhausted. Link wanted to wrap him in a blanket and make him a mug of tea.

“What?”

“My knees. If I stay like this any longer, I think I’ll have to get new ones.”

Ravio snorted. “Y’re not keeping them in prime condition?”

“Tiled floors are not good for prime condition.”

Ravio finally let go, and Link hauled himself to his feet. He groaned. His knees didn’t hurt — they ached. “Whoever invented joints is a fucking menace to society.” He scooped Sheerow up from the chair next to Ravio and plopped down, legs still outstretched.

Sheerow twittered angrily at him, most likely protesting the birdhandling.

“Go sit in Ravi’s lap, then.” He held his palms next to Ravio’s thigh. “Go on.”

Sheerow fluffed his feathers and sent Link a withering glare, before hopping over to Ravio.

“Gosh, I’m shaking in my boots.” Link crossed his arms.

Ravio chuckled and ran a finger along Sheerow’s back. “He was just startled, is all. Y’got here fast and he’s tired.”

“He can have a nap if he wants to. As can you.”

Ravio hummed. “Not sure I’ll be able to sleep.”

“Rest, then.”

Ravio glanced at him. Specifically, his shoulder.

Link did his best put-upon dramatic sigh and extended his arm. “Bring it in.” The tips of his ears burned.

Ravio shuffled closer and rested his head on Link’s shoulder. “Thanks. Bunny.” There was a smile in his voice.

“I can still change my mind, you know.” Link wrapped his arm around Ravio.

“Will y’?”

He rested his head against the top of Ravio’s and closed his eyes. “Probably not, no.”

CHAPTER 2 1/2 HURT AND COMFORT

Toph stormed away from the dining hall in a huff. She wasn’t sure why she and Zuko hadn’t been talking except to fight more and more.  If they weren’t careful, rumors would begin to spread.  Throwing open the door to the training arena, she began hurling rocks at the targets. The door eased open behind and she scowled before burying herself in a stone igloo.

Hakoda sighed as he saw the rocks rise into place.  “Toph, I’m just here to talk if you want.”

At his words, a small hole bent open and Toph’s voice floated out, “Well, excuse me for my lack of decorum at the breakfast table.”

Hakoda shook his head, “I’m not upset at you. It sounds like you need someone to talk to or someone to listen to you and since my kids aren’t here yet, I’m willing to listen.”

“Yeah, right, old man.”

“How many times did we talk in the temple, Toph? You know I’m not interested in changing you. I just want to help.”

Toph snorted and Hakoda sighed, sitting down and drawing a blade.  Reaching into a pocket, his fingers closed on nothingness. Checking all his pockets, he realized Malina must have taken his whetstone out when she set everything out for him this morning.

“I felt that.” Toph called out to him.

Hakoda blinked out of his thoughts, “Hmm? Excuse me.”

“The disappointment. It radiates through the stone and I can feel you judging me.”

“Ah, sorry. Right emotion, wrong target. I don’t have my whetstone to sharpen my blade while I wait.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

The hole widened a bit and a perfectly formed whetstone leaped out from the hut.

“Thank you, Toph.” Hakoda settled in and let the rasp, rasp, of the whetstone over steel settle his mind.

The sun moved slowly through the sky as Hakoda calmly sharpened his sword, his saxe knife, and his boot knife.  As he finished the last blade, he walked over to the used weapons pile and picked up two swords to sharpen.  Returning to his bench, he settled back down and began sharpening the sword dulled by use against an oaken pillar.  After a few strokes of the whetstone, the hut crumbled and Toph stomped over to him.

“Fine, old man. You win.”

Hakoda nodded, “Would you like to sit?”

 --------------------------------------------------------------

Admiral Jee opened the door cautiously. “You asked to see me, my lord?”

“Drop the ‘my lord’ nonsense and come with me.” Zuko opened a door in the wall that led to a passageway that plunged deep into the caldera and they walked to a platinum bunker held aloft by thick chains.

Jee lifted his eyebrow at the bunker. “I take it, whatever we’re discussing has to do with your fiancée?”

“Good guess.”

Stepping in and sealing the door, Zuko lit the air-warning candle and pulled out a thick packet of papers only to find Jee studying a painting of the Wani. Jee spoke without turning, “Would this have anything to do with the argument at breakfast, my… Zuko?”

Zuko scowled, “Yes and No. I need you to sign this.”

Jee lifted up the papers, “The Fire lord’s official MOST secret protection act? A specialized act even more restrictive than the Secrets protection act?”

“Yes, what I want to talk about is not to be repeated to anybody at all.”

Jee signed his name with a flourish. “Very well…Zuko, spit it out.”

Zuko froze as he debated how to start, but finally blurted out, “I’m in love with Toph.”

Jee nodded slowly, “Yessss… Isn’t that why you’re marrying her?”

“NO! The council invoked the bloodline security act and her father threatened to have her dragged back to the Earth Kingdom if she didn’t marry! This was supposed to give us cover for a few years until we figured something out, but now, RAAHHAGH!!!” The sconces flared as Zuko yelled before he threw himself into a chair and put his head down in his arms on the table.  “I can’t do anything about it either.”

Jee furrowed his brow, “You can’t talk to her about it?  If she’s a good friend…”

“The best”

“Your best friend, then, why don’t you talk to her?”

“It’s not honorable.”

Jee barked out a laugh, “Kid, I was stuck on a ship with you for three years and you’re still going on about honor?” Zuko looked up and scowled at him and he added, “my lord?”

“It’s not honorable because everything she depends on right now, friends, housing, work, leisure, everything she has here, I can snap my fingers and make it all disappear.”

“Pretty sure she’d snap you if you ever tried that.”

Zuko glanced up from the table, “Really? You lack that much faith in my combat prowess?”

Jee snorted, “No, I just have more faith in the ‘Melon Lord.’ How fast did she win the Caldera benders brawl?”

Zuko smiled at the memory, “3 minutes, 44 seconds against 49 benders, 10 of them Imperial Firebenders from my personal guard.”

“I rest my case.”

“Fair enough.”

“Anyway, since she’s such a threat… why don’t you talk to her? She’s your best friend and if you have a chance for this friendship to blossom into something more, shouldn’t you take it.”

Zuko shook his head, “I can’t do that to her.”

Jee shrugged, “Personally, I understand your concerns, but she’s an earthbender. I think she’d appreciate knowing the situation entirely so she can face it head-on.”

Zuko nodded, “I’ll take that under advisement.”

Lined up behind the Hokage, Kakashi studied his students carefully.

Sakura’s hair was cropped close to her neck and both Naruto and Sasuke looked like they’d been tussling together for a straight week. Knowing how fussy his kunoichi could be about her hair, the sudden haircut likely meant that both boys had been incapacitated at some point or the other. While Naruto looked ready to go for another round, Sasuke seemed paler than ever.

Kakashi also didn’t like the way the boy was slouched.

“…There are sour times, eh Kakashi?”

With a start, he realized that Gai was looking at him expectantly.

Craning his head around, he blinked, “Hmm? You say something?”

To his confusion, Gai only spun around with hunched shoulders.

Apparently not.

Returning his attention back to his kids, he resisted the urge to frown. Sasuke was rubbing his chin, looking intently ahead, likely watching the Hokage as their leader delivered the usual speech about the true nature of the exams. Was it too much to hope that his team had avoided the sannin?

Would they still be here if they had?

Of course, that was assuming that the reports of Orochimaru’s presence were true.

But why would the man attack now?

As Hayate’s sudden entrance caused the crowd of genin to shift their weights restlessly, he zeroed in on once again on the sannin’s reported target.

“I’m going to quit.”

He flicked his gaze over to a silver-haired bespectacled genin. Judging from Naruto’s protests, the older genin had apparently been a temporary ally. It was still amazing sometimes to realize how quickly his student could grow attached to a total stranger. Absently, he listened to Anko’s short report on the genin in the row in front of him.

Yakushi Kabuto. This would make the seventh time he failed the exams. Did the boy just not want to pass?

His eyes snapped back as Sakura’s bright pink hair shifted suddenly. The girl hovered, visibly anxious as Sasuke hunched over, clutching at his neck.

Kakashi felt his heart sink before stamping it away. You saw this coming.

He watched as Sakura grabbed at Sasuke’s hand with visibly watery eyes. He’d need to teach the girl more situational awareness; she was starting to draw attention from her competitors. In the meantime however, her lack of skills were less likely to get her killed then-

Was Sasuke’s hand rising?

With surprise, he watched as Sasuke’s hand seemed to drift up as if he meant to quit.

Then the boy shook his head sharply, and dropped his arm, brushing away the girls hold on his other hand. He saw Naruto’s startled expression as the boy darted a glance up before back to Sasuke.

Wait a minute. Without changing his expression, he eyed the tiles on the floor before him, estimating the distance. From the angle at which his students’ heads were turned, they both eyed someone to the right of the Hokage.

Why were they eyeing a foreign shinobi?

He tuned in as he noticed Anko counseling the Hokage, “We should remove him from the exam and have the ANBU watching over and protecting him.”

Sasuke, I spoil you.

Tilting his head forward, he cut in, “He’s the type that wouldn’t easily agree to that.”

As Anko spun around, he added with a smile, “After all, he’s from that Uchiha clan.”

She was unamused, “Don’t be foolish! We’ll force him to quit!”

That would end well.

She continued, intent on making him understand, “By just releasing chakra, the curse becomes active and forcibly pulls out chakra. It’s a forbidden jutsu which eats at the user’s body. It’s amazing that this child is still standing. He should be dead.”

He glanced at the boy, who happened to look back up, meeting his eyes.

Out of the corner of his eye, Anko turned for confirmation from Hiruzen, “Hokage-sama?”

“What Orochimaru said is on my mind. Let’s let Sasuke continue and watch over the situation.”

As Anko stuttered a protest, the Hokage continued, “But if the curse begins opening and releasing power, then jump in and stop him.”

Sasuke dropped his gaze, only to again look to the right.

Whatever the boy was looking at, he was going to start attracting attention. Just as that thought had finished, Sasuke turned his attention back to Hayate, who was drawing the introduction to the preliminaries to a close, “This is sudden, but let’s announce the two names of the first fight.”

“Uchiha Sasuke versus Akado Yoroi.”

Well, the sooner, the better. Sasuke was clearly grimacing, and he knew the boy’s pain tolerance was fairly high. Judging by lingering glances, his other competitors had also seemed to notice that something was off.

As the two competitors stepped toward Hayate, the referee continued, “We will begin the first match now. Will everyone except the two participants move to the upper level?”

Naruto waved an exuberant greeting as Kakashi followed the crowd toward the staircase. When he was just behind the boy, he murmured, “Sasuke, don’t use the sharingan.”

“I know.”

Did he really? “If that curse on your neck becomes active, you might lose your life.”

“Watch the Oto-nin. He gave the curse.”

Kakashi almost missed his next step. Hiding his surprise and knowing that he couldn’t linger too long without being accused of cheating, he murmured, “You are certain.”

“Be careful.” With that response as a confirmation, the brat moved away.

Fingers clenched into twin fists in his pockets, Kakashi resumed his slow amble up the stairs. The Oto-nin had been standing less than a meter from the Hokage just minutes earlier. Could Sasuke have been mistaken?

Frowning, Kakashi climbed the stairs and greeted his other students. Once silence had settled and everyone’s attention was clearly fixed below, Hayate lowered his hands, “Now, please begin.”

He didn’t like this. Eyes fixed on the match below he lowered his hand below him and tilted it so that the metal guard on the back of his hand reflected the Oto-nin’s image.

“Are you ready?” The taller boy, Yoroi, spoke first.

Sasuke crouched down and merely glowered.

In clear movements, Yoroi reached back for the pack on his leg before digging out three shuriken and hurtling them at Sasuke.

Spinning to the side, Sasuke dodged the projectiles only to come face to face with Yoroi’s charging.

Slipping under the arm, Sasuke pushed back from Yoroi with one arm.

What was this? These non-confrontational maneuvers weren’t Sasuke’s style.  

The two danced around the stadium for a little longer, demonstrating impressive speed, but not the speed that he knew Sasuke to be capable of.

He flexed his wrist. The Oto-nin was watching with almost a hungry-gleam in his eyes – but so were most of the other competitors.

They didn’t look half as amused though.

Returning his attention back to the competition, he tilted his body, about to nudge Gai with his elbow when Sasuke flinched.

Immediately, Yoroi pounced. To Sasuke’s credit, he recovered remarkably swiftly, flipping himself out of the hold to engage his opponent in a chokehold.

But then the masked genin reached back and planted a hand in Sasuke’s face. He watched with mounting concern as his student’s hold noticeably weakened.

There was a poke to his ribcage. Resisting the urge to react, he pivoted his foot and lightly pressed down on Gai’s foot. Oto-nin. Suspicious.

Gai gave him a sharp look, before jabbing another poke to his ribcage and moving away.

Just then the Yoroi sprung away, while Sasuke staggered back … with a grin?

The smile looked almost malevolent. Yoroi took another step back.

Naruto voiced his first thought, “What’s going on?”

The Inuzuka boy answered first, “They were talking, I think.”

Sakura looked over, with about half of the rookies. The rest were still fixated on the match below. “What were hey talking about?”

“It was too quiet to hear.”

Instead of engaging Sasuke, as he had seemed anxious to do just moments before, Yoroi kept his distance, and the two circled one another in slow steps.

Naruto grumbled in confusion, “What the hell?”

Curious, he glanced back at his metal plate to find that the Oto-nin also looked perturbed.

Then, a slight movement caught his eye. Akado Yoroi, a Konoha nin, had also darted a look up to where the foreign nin were. It was a slight movement that he would have missed if he hadn’t already been forewarned.

By the way Gai leaned away from the railing, he thought that he wasn’t the only one.

His student spoke again, “Watch where you stand.” Then, without another word, he turned to Hayate and raised his hand, “I forfeit.”

Hayate blinked. He wasn’t the only one taken aback. From the mood and body language, anyone would have thought that it was Sasuke that had won. Even Akado seemed uneasy. The only one who seemed unruffled was Sasuke.

“SASUKE, WHAT THE HELL?!”

Naruto wasn’t pleased.

With a cough and another look at Sasuke, who only stared back at him expectantly, Hayate raised his hand, “Winner of the first match, Akado Yoroi… has passed the prelims.”

“SASUKE!!”

Below, Sasuke dusted himself off and turned to leave only to pause and look back. The smile that was growing on his face was unsettling, “Yoroi.”

His former opponent paused from where he had been about to climb the stairs.

The grin grew larger, “Good luck.” His stance.

It was a total bluff?

A quick leap and he was behind his student. Resting an elbow on his student’s shoulder, he turned just in time to see the new arrivals to the stadium floor, “Akado Yoroi, Uchiha Sasuke.”

Garbed in white with a clear red medical cross branded on his torso, the officer continued, “Let the medical team treat your injuries now.”

Waving his hand languidly, and noticing how his student had subtly started to lean against him, he smiled, “I’ll take care of him.”

As the medical officer shrugged and was likewise waved off by Yoroi, he swung and arm around Sasuke and leaned over, placing his mouth just next to the boy’s ear, “I’m going to take you to the back and seal up that curse.”

Then: Kakashi.

The moment the door closed, Sasuke spoke, “The jounin from Sound.”

Kakashi remained silent as he tugged off his glove with his teeth and used his other hand to guide Sasuke into the center of two concentric circles, marked out on the floor.

Sasuke finally turned to meet his eyes, “Did you notice?”

Instead of answering immediately, Kakashi cut open his palm and allowed the blood to well up in his hand, “Remove your shirt.”

Wordlessly, Sasuke tugged the shirt off.

“This will take a while, so you may want to sit.”

Again, the boy obeyed his orders without complaint. The kid hadn’t even complained about his removal from watching the rest of the preliminaries. The easy compliance was unsettling, though convenient.

Placing a hand on the juncture between his student’s neck and shoulder, Kakashi cautioned, “Don’t move.” Extending his index and middle finger, he allowed the blood to drip down the two digits and began to write, carefully painting a line of script around the three tomoe of the curse mark.

Once the curse was encircled, he stepped to the boy’s front and began drawing a line down across the boy’s chest. Eyes focused on his work, he didn’t look up when he finally spoke, “Your opponent seemed interested in the jounin as well.”

Akado Yoroi. He was sure he hadn’t been the only one to notice the boy’s aborted look toward the wrong side of the stands during the match.

Sasuke’s breathing hitched for a moment, causing Kakashi to pause with his fingers in the air. He darted his eye upward for a moment, meeting his student’s gaze, “I didn’t think you’d forfeit.”

He was somewhat startled at the relief that arose at the boy’s sudden scowl. At last, behavior that was familiar. Returning his gaze once more to his work, he continued extending the line past the boy’s seventh rib. Once that was completed, he stepped forward again to draw a second line.

“You said you’d stop the match.”

Yes, but that was only if it looked like the curse would activate.

The second line was shorter, ending just below the boy’s sternum. With his increased familiarity with the script, Kakashi finished the line quickly and stepped back, “What did you say to him?”

Sasuke, who had been studying the dark red lines painted across his chest, looked up, “That he’ll never surpass Kabuto in Orochimaru’s eyes; that he’s not even close.”

Kakashi widened his eye and raised his eyebrow. If Akado was a traitor, it would certainly explain why the boy had suddenly released Sasuke from his chokehold – and why Sasuke had remained so calm. Up in the stands, watching as Akado’s hand planted over Sasuke’s face, no one had been able to discern what had been said to make Yoroi jump back so quickly.

No one had also expected Sasuke to surrender in the next move. It was one of those few matches where the victor looked like the loser and the loser, the winner.

Stepping around to the boy’s back, he continued started a third line, “What made you say that?”

“’guessed.”

Finishing the line that trailed just over the boy’s left shoulder, he started the fourth line at a faster speed, “Did you meet his team in the forest?”

“We passed one another.”

There was silence as he finished the fifth and sixth lines.

“Did you tell…?” Sasuke trailed off.

Kakashi smiled grimly beneath his mask, “I alerted the examiners on my way up to the stands – after your warning.”

He reached out briefly, resting the back of his right hand on Sasuke’s unmarked shoulder and reminded softly, “Don’t move.”

Feeling Sasuke tense beneath his hand, he dug his fourth and pinky finger into the cut in his palm to keep the blood flowing. Removing his hand, he started painting the seventh line and felt the earlier lines come alive. Sasuke’s breaths grew deeper as the lines stretched out onto the floor over the lines of the circles he’d drawn on the floor. A few even stretched onto the concrete pillars.

He’d been lucky to find a room with the sufficient space required for this seal. Still, he didn’t like the length on some of those lines.

Eighth line to close and ninth to cap. 

Letting out a slow breath, he murmured, “You can relax – just two more.”

“After this…”

Kakashi waited. It was unlike Sasuke to be so hesitant. When the boy didn’t continue, he prompted, “After this?”

“After this, will they stow me away?”

Though he paused for barely a split second before touching back down on Sasuke’s neck to start the final line, he had a suspicion that Sasuke had caught it.

“Tilt your head.”

As he scrawled the last line up the boy’s neck, he cursed whoever had been gossiping, “What have you heard?”

“Not much.”

He stood and frowned down at the back of his student’s head. Stubborn. He flicked the back of his student’s head.

Wincing, Sasuke twisted to glare up at him.

“I told you not to move,” Kakashi admonished.

The glare turned flat.    

Relenting, Kakashi amended, “I assume you’ve heard about the threat that Orochimaru poses to you.”

Sasuke didn’t blink.

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Kakashi continued, “You’ll be under guard, but you won’t be ‘stowed away’. I convinced them not to. Aren’t you glad you have such a wonderful teacher?”

The boy twisted back to his original position, facing away from Kakashi, “Are we done?”

Kakashi gazed fondly down at the mess of black hair. Brat.

Sighing, Kakashi brought his hands together and started to gather his chakra, “Hang in there. Just a little longer.”

Feeling his chakra buildup crest, he sped through a blur of seals before slamming his palm down on the curse mark, “Evil sealing method!”

Immediately, the lines he’d drawn shrank back, gathering speed as the shot toward his palm.

He heard Sasuke choke back a shout.

Finally, it was done. Speaking over Sasuke’s harsh pants, Kakashi thumbed the flakes of blood in his hand, “If that curse tries to become active, this seal should contain it. However, this seal relies on your strength of will.”

Sasuke swayed forward onto his hands, still gasping for breath.

Kakashi pressed on, “If you lose belief in yourself, and your will weakens –”

“The seal will fail,” Sasuke finished with a tight grin, looking up at him from beneath his lashes, as if it was too much effort to even lift his head. “That’s simple enough, or am I wrong?”

Kakashi huffed a laugh, “You’d be more convincing if you could stand.”

Sasuke closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the ground.

Kakashi was amazed his student was still awake. Just as he was about to forcefully carry his student back to the stadium, the hair on the back of his neck stood up.

“So you can even use sealing jutsu now…”

That voice. It couldn’t be.

Footsteps echoed in the room, “You’ve grown… Kakashi.”

Collecting himself, he turned.

Orochimaru stood with his hands behind his back, dressed in a flak jacket with his hair obscuring the sign on his forehead protector. When he spoke, it was the same silky smooth voice from before, “Long time no see… Kakashi-kun.”

Kakashi stepped to the side, angling his body to face Orochimaru more directly. He was making a bigger target out of himself, but it would obscure the line of sight to his student.

If Sasuke had any sense, he’d run.

Languidly, Orochimaru strode forward, “I’m not here to see you, Kakashi-kun. I’m here for the boy behind you.”

He had to stall. If enough time passed, his absence would be noted by the proctors, “Why are you after Sasuke?”

Orochimaru stopped and lifted his chin with a smile, “Heh. You’re lucky. You’ve already gotten your hands on it.”

It? Kakashi shot the man a look. He didn’t like the sannin’s slow methodical movements. It was like the man wasn’t even in a hurry.