Chapter 7: Interlude: Reborn

"For years, I was afraid that I was losing myself. I was afraid that I was becoming more… human and less powerful, withheld by my disdainful sentiments. I was being corrupted by the people that had once forced themselves into my life, to 'turn' me into them, as if I was wrong, as if I was broken, as if I was a monster that needed to be made human. Foolish. I realize now, more than anything else, that my humanity is better buried, left to rot at the grasping hands of my impending influence, my growing realization that I need no other to reign supreme, no limiter to my inner gift, allowed to embrace the uppermost limits of humankind. They are the ones who are burdened with shackles that bind their true selves to this world and limit their potential; they are far too incensed with empty vices, pointless goals, and needless emotion. I almost find their tenacity to purposefully remain ignorant rather amusing, their blind disregard for the truth beyond shameful on their behalf. At one point, I might have been easily… dissuaded from my course, but not now. I cannot stop, and I will not stop. For the world has taken everything from me that might have once deterred me, but it has left me a void filled with unstoppable power beyond mortal comprehension. To utilize these gifts at will with no limit, no remorse, no further regrets, no further vague emotions halting my progress, that is my destiny, and I will ensure that my fate will scar this world and be remembered for all time, inflicted by revenge, engraved with agony, and paved with blood, all to remove and cauterize the worst of the human virus... My father would be proud, if he yet lived…"

The towering behemoth that wore the body of a man was wreathed in a tattered, black cloak and with intimidating clawed gauntlets donned, glinting in the night, the man nearly indiscernible from the blackness of the wood through which he walked languidly. The local wildlife would normally be most verbose this time of year, but with the oppressive, perpetual blackness overhead that blocked the sun, moon and stars alike, it seemed even the nature of life had been truncated to silence and stillness, even the trees seemed to wither as time had passed with less sunlight. Or perhaps, the man thought with a crooked grin beneath the cowl wrapped around his lower face, it was his presence that had terrorized the flora and fauna into submission. It ultimately didn't matter to him, as he stalked towards Otogakure, the Hidden Sound Village, with blood-tinged thoughts running rampant through his bitter and macabre mind.

In passing, he thought of his long-gone father with a small spark of despair and ache. The young man felt so empty and alone without the seal that once housed the Kyubi within him, the one being he could trust, gone…

Kakashi shook his head and sighed as Sasuke angrily shouted in outrage as he fell onto the grass again, Sakura nearby rushing to help him back up, but the boy shook her off with a nearly animalistic growl as his three prosthetic limbs awkwardly and shakily pushed him back to his feet, his emerald eyes fiery with rage.

"You know, Sasuke, even though you've had these prostheses for a while now, you really shouldn't push too hard…"

The boy in question turned and snarled at the older ninja watching his progress and training. "You have no right to tell me that, Kakashi! I have to train more to regain my abilities to defeat… them…"

Sakura rushed to his side and briefly glanced at her sensei and teammate with slightly humbled irritation. "Sensei, Sasuke has to keep trying until he can get it right to ensure the limbs are grafted properly and work well enough to reinstate him into the service. I know it's hard to see him like this, but he has to do it. If we kept stopping him, he wouldn't be able to rise by himself yet."

Kakashi sighed, "Yeah, you're right. Sorry, you two. I just don't want to see you so worked up, is all."

Sasuke glared for a moment before his rage dissipated and he too sighed in resignation. "It's fine, sensei. Don't worry about it. I just really… I don't want to end up like Shikamaru. Lethargic. Bitter. I want to surpass what I once was and finally have my—no, our—revenge against them. All of them. My murderous brother, Orochimaru the bloodline thief, that traitorous bastard Uzumaki…"

Kakashi winced at the coldness of his tone, unwilling to bring up the fact that Kakashi and a few others had no intention of hurting Naruto, but rather bringing him back under their wing. He merely nodded and averted his gaze. "Let's try it again Sasuke. Begin from the first kata, slowly to keep your balance this time."

Sasuke nodded while Sakura stared at them, but her mind took her miles away, to the past, to his fiery red eyes glowing with unbridled malevolence…

Tsunade sat idly at the Hokage's desk, determined to glare a hole through the finely polished wood as she sipped her alcoholic beverage to alleviate the stress of her daily work, when her apprentice apprehensively entered the room with a stack of papers, no doubt dozens of more ways to aggravate the older blonde Hokage. However, atop, was a neatly wrapped scroll, sealed. She lifted her scathing gaze to Shizune who flinched slightly and mentioned timidly that it was from Jiraiya.

Tsunade gripped her beverage tightly, almost to the point of breaking it, but relented with a miserable exhale and slouched in her chair as Shizune looked at her apologetically before leaving the office again, leaving Tsunade alone once more.

She couldn't be mad at him, she truly understood. She knew the lengths she would go through to help Shizune if she was in a similar situation to the Naruto kid everyone was up in arms about. But to leave her and the village alone for years on a wild goose chase, following false leads and rumors in endless circles, there was a point where even that tenacious old pervert had to surrender and accept the fact that Naruto didn't want to be found.

And yet, no matter how often she wanted to remind him of that, of how Naruto clearly didn't care for other Konoha ninja the way Jiraiya did based on the mauling of a few of his old classmates that she was forced to heal and help create prosthetic limbs for, she realized it wouldn't work, no more than he trying to persuade her to abandon Shizune. Naruto was practically his family, and he was lost and alone and needed a guide like Jiraiya, even if Naruto didn't want to acknowledge it.

She finally opened the scroll after a moment to rather unsettling, but unsurprising news of Orochimaru, the Sharingan Sannin as he was now known. He and his troops were quite mobile within the smaller countries between Konoha and the other larger five shinobi countries, but Konoha couldn't afford to be directly involved in any small skirmishes or battles so close to major enemy nations, even if it was Orochimaru, that damnable, fiendish murderer and abhorrent experimentation of human flesh. It seems he was marching towards Kusagakure, after having reportedly annihilated all resistance in Takigakure and claimed it as his own. If things got any further out of hand, Konoha would have no choice—Tsunade would have no choice—but to declare war so close to the borders of their old enemies, Iwagakure. That was a risk Tsunade didn't want to take but may not be spared from making.

Finishing her drink, she prepared to write a notice for squads to increase their presence in the north and west…

In a dimly lit underground room, five figures kneeled towards a throne, faced away from them and leaving the occupant unseen, but they could feel his glorious and terrifying powers. He stood amidst the silent murkiness of the room and slowly walked around the bleak obstacle to his reign of terror in order to face his five most faithful and powerful servants. He saw as each slowly raised their heads while remaining bowed in submission, looking with awe and terror upon his glowing red eyes with spinning black symbols in the irises. He licked his lips, savoring the barely hidden terror before smirking maliciously.

"You know, it came upon me recently that my most interesting Otogakure deserves more than what few resources our new lands can provide. I think… it's about time we march to war, once again. To conquer and show our superiority to the lesser rats that dwell in this land of Shinobi. What do you five think of leading my forces once again?"

Four nodded while the fifth, with white hair and round spectacles, grinned and spoke up. "Lord Orochimaru, I have done as you have asked and subtly spread the misinformation required. It is assured that the lands believe we will soon march upon Kusagakure, as you wished."

Although Orochimaru was initially inclined to teach him a lesson about speaking without being allowed to, Kabuto had more than proven his cleverness and usefulness. He quelled that urge and listened with a sick grin, denying his twisted inner thoughts of inflicting pain.

"I am most pleased, Kabuto," he chuckled darkly. "Make the necessary preparations. Prepare our soldiers that aren't required to guard these lands, we march in a week."

Kabuto looked up, grinning arrogantly as well. "Should I prepare the scouts to confirm Kusa's defenses?"

Orochimaru sneered and turned back towards his throne, and sat placidly, facing away from them once more, though the malicious feeling of his oppressive power never abated even an inch. "No, Kabuto. We will march east, to the Land of Hot Water."

His servants looked surprised, having expected an entirely different enemy and terrain. Although they couldn't see Lord Orochimaru's terrifying face, they could feel the evil grin creeping across…

"It has been quite some time since we've last met…" drawled a deep, eerie voice that sent shivers up the spines of many that heard it. It resonated with power, beyond what many could even fathom. And it spoke of a deep-seated arrogance to those more observant, noticed by few within the dark halls of the Akatsuki's hidden base.

"Indeed, I am beginning to wonder when we will make our final moves, Lord Pain," growled a hunched over figure wreathed in a black cloak adorned with red cloud patterns.

"Soon. Of the three targets that remain, I find that the vessel of the Ichibi is most vulnerable, and that is where we shall strike. Deidara, Sasori, you two will see to his capture."

The organization widened their eyes collectively in interest. It had been a few months since the last capture of a major target of theirs, and this was a most interested turn of events.

"Hey, what about the rest of us? Maybe we would like to spill some blood as well," moaned a young, handsome man with silver hair and a strange talisman worn around his neck. The blue-haired woman that stood next to Pain, looked upon the attractive silver-haired man with disdain, as if seeing something unsightly beyond his physical presence.

"Hidan and Kakuzu… you two will seek out Orochimaru. It is known that he is marching off to war against the smaller villages again, towards Kusagakure."

"Actually, um, Lord Pain," interrupted the meek voice of the white half of a man that seemed vertically split, one half white and the other black. "We found out that Orochimaru plans to march against the Land of Hot Water. He intends to have all the countries tense in the west while he heads east where they are less prepared."

"That snake, slithering through the darkness, manipulating others, toying with his living puppets, betraying... Make sure that his death is not easy," growled the hunched man, Sasori.

"Meanwhile," continued the purple-eyed leader, "Zetsu, you and our newest addition shall seek out the Hachibi, in Kumogakure, but remain hidden, we will need your presence to seal the Ichibi."

The others looked around in confusion until a man in Akatsuki regalia and wearing a twisted orange mask with one eyehole appeared from the darkness.

"I'm so glad to finally meet all of you! Tobi is glad to work with Akatsuki and excited to catch that big octopus with Zetsu-sempai!"

Before any of you guys start shitting bricks… I did say I wasn't going to abandon the story. I try to keep to my word, even to people who don't know me.

The short excuse is that life got in the way. And I do mean really, really in the way. So in the way, I didn't think I'd still be alive to upload more stories. To be fair, I've lost my artistic talents for a couple years due to depressing shit. Regardless, here I am, alive, uncertainly sane, of questionable sobriety, in dire need of psychological help. Time to write depressing fanfiction instead! What a glorious life I lead.

I have to thank some of you that bother sending me PMs and commenting. Sometimes I just need to read a bunch of those and I feel just slightly more meaningful, just enough to try writing again.

It's at this point a bunch of you people should listlessly and deprecatingly sigh "Yaaaay…"

I realize it's been a while… uh… years, I guess, but some things have changed after reviewing what I wrote so long ago based on a plot line I wrote in high school years ago. The original future of the story sucks, I'll be blunt, it was from high school after all. So, it took even longer than I thought just to re-imagine a good story based on this foundation I've built with the first six chapters. After scrapping the first plot line, and thinking on it for a while, I think I'm ready to continue now that I'm in a place in my life where it doesn't really matter how I spend my spare time (though that's not necessarily anything good, I'll spare the sordid and depressing details, and instead channel that relentless negativity into something depressing to read). So uh… I suppose that's about it.

So, with that in mind, I've decided to upload a short "buffer" chapter to prepare readers for upcoming plot stuff and further chapters, and mostly to let you all know this isn't abandoned. I also feel sad that after this update, the word count for the story will supersede 86,666, which tickled me for a while.

Sorry for the rant. I'll try to upload a real chapter soon.