A Growing Affection

Chapter 18: Skinning a Snake

Orochimaru watched impassively, waiting to see what Sasuke was building up to.

"No more. You are not fit to claim the power of the Sharingan. We are done. I am leaving. I will find someone who can give me what I need."

"Ha," Orochimaru started laughing, "Hahahahahahahahahahaha! What incredible timing. I might have missed you last time. Had you not come back, left a little earlier, I would have been forced to take a surrogate again. But this time I will own you. Be you."

"I thought you looked frail," Sasuke took a step back, "I thought you were going to be trapped in that body for another six months."

Slithering to his feet, the villain shrugged, "Maybe this form was too weak to begin with. Or perhaps I burned too much of its life force, regaining the use of my arms."

He dropped his shoulders, and his arms extended to almost twice their original length.

"Either way I still have more than enough left for the weaker sibling."

Sasuke looked back at the entrance, weighing his options. He saw Kabuto's smirking visage as the reinforced doors slammed shut.

As Orochimaru's arms reached the ground, the skin and even some of the muscle sloughed off. Underneath were scales; so pale they were almost translucent. The shedding stopped, and instead of arms, the Sannin had two large vipers extending from his shoulders. Their transformation complete, the serpents lifted their heads, staring at the teenager in hungrily.

Sasuke threw a trio of shuriken with each hand. Orochimaru's reptilian arms knocked the blades away without even taking a scratch. The jutsu hunter's robe shredded, chunks of flesh pouring off his torso. As the Sannin's host peeled away, the form of a coiled snake was revealed. Fortunately, the ninja creature's breeches remained, intact, but the skin on his feet also shedded, showing clawed, scaled toes.

"Mi, Hitsuji, Saru, I, Uma, Tora," Sasuke shouted, spitting a sphere of flames at his former master. As Orochimaru's body and neck started to unwind, his serpentine hands gestured and spoke.

"Mi, Tastu, Tori, Inu, Ne" the twin snakes invoked, "Ninja arts, Mud Surge Jutsu!"

The ground erupted between them, a cresting wave of muck enveloping the Uchiha's fire art. The rebel teen was forced to abandon his attack to avoid being dashed against the wall.

"Wind Release, Vacuum Blade," He drew his chokutō and cut upwards through the mire in a single stroke. Behind the wall, he saw Orochimaru's molting was complete. His legs remained covered, and mostly unchanged. But from the waist up, he was a twenty-foot long constrictor. Five feet below his head, the two ten-foot vipers jutted out as his arms. The Sannin's face was mostly unchanged, except his canine teeth had lengthened into hypodermic fangs.

"This is what you have chosen to become?" Sasuke sneered, allowing his obvious disgust to show.

"This, foolish boy, is my soul shell," Orochimaru hissed in triplicate, "It is the natural form my spirit takes when it manifests outside a body. It is much more powerful than a physical body."

"Then why steal bodies?"

"Because," this time, only his head spoke, his 'arms' were beginning to craft a new jutsu, "For all its power, the soul shell begins to fade without a material form to anchor it. Also, without a charka network, I cannot recover my energy."

"Necromantic Arts, Flesh Bomb Jutsu," the villains hands whispered. The serpents scooped up chunks of the discarded skin and muscle in their mouths and tossed the tissue, not at Sasuke but near him. As expected from the jutsu, the missiles exploded; however rather than force or flames, the eruptions filled the air around Sasuke with vile fumes. Coughing, Uchiha dove out of the cloud.