Team Guy is all going a little slower than normal, trying to recoup our strength. Sakura is alternating who she is running with so she can use her medical ninjutsu on us as we run. She manages to close our wounds up and at least lessen the immediate pain. None of us were greatly wounded at all, just cuts and bruises, so it doesn't take her much effort or chakra to do it. We run for hours, following the trail of Yamato's clone, until we finally meet up with it.
"The hideout is just through there, I saw Orochimaru, Kabuto, and Sai enter in about half an hour ago." His clone tells us. Yamato disperses his clone and we start to work out a plan.
"Sasuke must be in there, we gotta go in. And we have to get Sai out of there, I don't know what's going on with that guy." Naruto says in irritation. He's still drained from having his chakra sealed up, but at least he and Sakura are uninjured this time and he didn't go on a rampage.
"For now, we'll focus on getting Sai out. We don't know what his orders are, but he is at least a known factor." Yamato says to Naruto firmly, who just growls before relenting.
"Team Guy will keep up a perimeter so that Orochimaru can't escape again." Sensei says to the other team.
"He's wounded greatly, I can say that. When my clone followed him, he was struggling. Whatever you guys did earlier was working." Yamato tells us proudly with a smile. We nod grimly, not seeing the success when he still got away.
We moved out, Team Guy fanning out in different directions to cover the four possible exit areas. Neji and I went to opposite corners, therefore covering the most range with our eyes.
I, however, have a different plan.
I know for a fact because of the show that Sasuke is in there, and I intend to see him, uninterrupted, before the others find him. As I'm running over the huge catacombs of tunnels underground, I keep a watchful eye on him once I spot him. At first he's with Orochimaru, but then he branches out and goes into a private room by himself. I make a marking on a tree before I transport myself directly next to my old friend.
"Long time no see." I say warmly, scaring him slightly as I appear out of thin air next to him.
I take in his appearance, it's just like the show. He's grown up, and become very handsome. He's taller than me now, and his Sharingan eyes have the three tomoes in them now. He's crouched slightly in an attack position as he spun away from me when I entered, but he straightens slightly when he finally realizes who I am.
"Ami?" He asks in disbelief, "Is that really you?"
"The one and only." I say with a smirk.
I can see him debate for a second, before he says, "Hn."
I throw a knife instantly at him, aiming straight for his heart. "Brat." I glare at him for a moment as he caught the blade at the last second before we both smirk at each other. He knows it's really me now.
"What are you doing here?" He asks in his new, deep voice he has developed over our years apart.
"Oh, ya know, was in the area, thought I'd stop by." I joke to him before turning serious. "We had intel on Orochimaru's location, so a few people are here to check it out. Naruto and Sakura are here, along with my team. They... don't know I'm here with you though." I admit to him and his eyes fractionally narrow in confusion. "They're searching for you now, but you still have my mark on you. I needed to talk to you first. Sasuke, I have to ask you, privately right now, why do you train? Who is your enemy?" I stare straight into his eyes as I ask him this.
"I didn't want to believe you at first that day almost three years ago." He starts, glancing down to the side before bringing his eyes back to mine, his Sharingan no longer activated. "But I found evidence here of Orochimaru working with Danzo for the siege, and of Danzo... stealing the Uchiha's eyes. Orochimaru helped him rob my clans graves and steal their eyes, just to implant them in an arm for his own selfish use. My enemy... is Danzo." He says with a dark conviction.
I nod and smile, stepping forward and pulling him into a hug. "It's nice to see you again, Sasuke." I whisper softly to him as he slowly wraps his arms firmly around me too. I pull back and reach into my pouch, pulling out the scroll with the sword. "I got you something." I hand him it and he opens it cautiously.
"I remember this." He says quietly as he summons the lighting blade we had seen when we were kids. "Thank you, Ami."
"No problem!" I say cheerily. "Now listen, I don't have much more time. The Akatsuki is planning a war, and it will be soon. Danzo has started to come out of his hiding at his Root Foundation and is interfering again in Konoha. He sent Sai here as a sacrificial pawn to try and plan with Orochimaru to attack, but we already knew that beforehand. We've finally gotten the upper hand on information on Danzo, but he still thinks he's the mastermind. We think that at some point he will try to take over again as Hokage. Sasuke, I have to ask, what are your plans for Orochimaru? And... for Itachi?" I ask him hesitantly.
"I will kill Orochimaru soon, he's almost outlived his usefulness to me anyway. I've become more powerful than him. As for Itachi... I need to meet with him again." He says, but I can sense there is more.
"You still want to kill him, don't you?" I ask sadly.
"I want to fight him, to prove myself to him. He needs to confess everything he did, and why. I want to hear it from his mouth, Ami. He can't just murder our entire clan and get away with it. He needs to tell me why. I'm his brother, I deserve to know. I deserve to know why he made me hate him instead of the village who caused the massacre." He growls out darkly.
"Fine, but go in with an open mind. He loved the village, you always said so yourself. Listen when he speaks, but also listen for what he isn't saying." I suggest to him softly. "As for Orochimaru, don't hate me if I kill him first." I smirk up at him at that.
"Hn." He smirks back and I punch his chest. Not hard, but enough to get the point across.
"When you leave here... Where will you go? Do you have a plan for after?" I ask him curiously.
"I'm not coming back to the village until Danzo is dead and the elders are all gone. I still don't trust the village at all, it's corrupt." He says firmly, and I nod in acceptance. It makes sense. "I need to talk to Itachi first, I can't think past that."
"Do you have people you can trust here? People who would follow you, and watch your back?" I ask him, thinking about his team he forms.
"A few. None I trust as much as you, but still, I have some." He tells me, stepping closer, his eyes boring into mine intensely, his voice softening. "Ami..."
"We aren't back in the village yet, Sasuke." I remind him quietly, looking straight up at him pleadingly, guessing what he's about to say. He doesn't say anything more, so I change the subject. "I have to deal with the Akatsuki soon. We took out two members recently, but there are still many more. We have some intelligence on them and their actions, and it is so much bigger than just one nation. They want to take over the world."
Sasuke thinks seriously for a moment. "I could help. I could infiltrate, join them, after my fight with Itachi. I could send my hawks to you personally. I won't help Konoha while it's corrupt, but I want to help you. You mean too much to me to let you go in blindly if there really is a war. I'll become a rogue."
"You already technically are a rogue, though Tsunade has agreed to pardon you. She knows about the curse mark and she knows how Orochimaru's twisted mind works better than anyone. That's classified though, only she, myself, and Kakashi know about your pardon. We did it that way to keep a cover for you, so news would never reach Danzo or Orochimaru about you coming back home. It's safer for you if they think you are lost to evil." I say sadly. "If you do..." I choke up for a moment, knowing the risk he is about to take. "If you do infiltrate, make it believable. I will let Tsunade know your reasons for doing it. You shouldn't be treated like a criminal for doing something for the greater good. I will not let what happened to Itachi happen to you as well." I say firmly to him.
He leans down slowly and purposefully, his aim clear, and he places a soft kiss on my cheek. "Thank you, Ami."
"I like your new look, by the way." I smirk at him. He's wearing a similar outfit to me, a white yukata top with black pants.
"Great minds think alike." He smirks back at me.
"Yes, however mine is a little less.." I look him up and down, noticing the completely open front. "Risqué." I giggle at him, and his smirk widens arrogantly. I really shouldn't have inflated his ego. I can see that Kabuto is heading this way now, "I have to go. You will meet your old team soon, act surprised. Remember, I was never here." I tell him with a wink. "And Sasuke?" I say as I step away, "Stay safe. I want my friend back home in one piece please. More fun to throw things at you then." I smirk and transport back to my outside starting spot.
The whole conversation took less than five minutes, but it was five invaluable minutes to me. He isn't lost anymore, I can see it in his eyes. I can see the conviction, I can see the light, and I can see the hope. He hides it well, but he can't hide it from me, I'm his best and oldest friend. I bet Naruto could see it as well if Sasuke let his guard down around him.
"Team, I have eyes on Orochimaru, he's alone and vulnerable." Neji says over the radio earpiece to us after a little longer. We've been patrolling outside for an hour now. Orochimaru has been with Kabuto nearly nonstop since we got here, so we haven't had an opening or opportunity yet to act without going into another drawn out battle. This is the snakes home, we would be at a disadvantage here as opposed to the last fight.
"Describe his location and surroundings." Sensei orders him over the radio. I look too, seeing him alone in a lab.
"He's underground, about 20 meters underneath the North section of the forest. It appears to be a lab that he's in, but he's moving slow, still recovering from our fight earlier." Neji informs.
"So are we." Lee points out.
"How do you want to do this, Sensei? He has the home advantage, but he's not expecting another attack." I say into the mic.
"Neji, find a safe vantage place nearby him and we will convene on your location." Sensei orders, and we move out. I run to where my brother moves to, and meet up with the team. It only takes a few moments to find him.
"Sensei? What's the plan?" I ask him curiously.
"We attack. We are not out yet. He hasn't fully tasted the power of our youth!" Sensei says boldly. Not really a plan, but I feel ready to fight again.
"Let's do it." I say firmly in agreement, getting fired up. "Let's kill the creep."
"Dynamic entry!" Sensei calls out as he uses a full powered punch with monstrous strength and destroys the ground below us, creating a crater all the way down into Orochimaru's lab. The Sannin jumps out of the way of some of the blast, but he can't avoid all of the rubble. We follow down after and take up a fighting stance surrounding him.
"Ah, so you found my home." Orochimaru sneers arrogantly at us as he stands back up, brushing the dust off his clothes. "A foolish mistake on your end."
Orochimaru uses an earth ninjutsu to send a mud attack at us. Neji and I use a water jutsu to meet it head on, cancelling it out. Meanwhile, Lee and Guy surround the Sannin and begin to fight him full out, both already having opening their 5th gates again. Neji and I create blocks in the snakes path, not letting him escape at all. When he gets too close to us, we use Air Wall palm to launch him back towards the two Green Beasts.
Once he stops trying to get past me, I jump up to the top of the crater and summon my bow. It just feels wrong not to shoot him like I usually do. I take aim with three arrows and make them all my silent arrows, and launch them right after Lee and Sensei do a Double Leaf Hurricane on him. The arrows pierce him straight through the kidney, left lung, and right shoulder. I cheer in glee when the dust disperses enough for me to see that the shots hit his actual body, and not a snake or a clone or substitution.
I'm so proud of myself, I finally got not one, but two fatal shots in on the Legendary Orochimaru.
"Nice job, Ami!" Lee calls out enthusiastically as I jump down and rejoin my team.
"I couldn't go without shooting him, it just felt so wrong." I say arrogantly, looking down at the struggling, dying Sannin. "Let's finish this." I say darkly and we all start to advance in.
Suddenly though, I feel as if my whole body is paralyzed. I can't move a single muscle, and each attempt to move is extremely painful.
"I can't move." I grit out, and hear my teammates are all in the same position as me. I can't turn to look at them, but using my Byakugan, I can see we are all paralyzed. "How?" I ask in disbelief.
Orochimaru struggles and gets to his feet, still bleeding out from his multiple wounds and clutching the arrow in his stomach to keep it from moving. "Paralyzing Genjutsu Pills." He breaths out with a chuckle followed by a wet cough that causes blood to flow from his mouth. "You're all exceptional taijutsu fighters. But that makes you weak against genjutsu. I made these tablets to control a Jinchuriki, but it works just fine on you beasts as well. I ground them down and dispersed them in the dust just now." He stops to throw up more blood and cough violently, but still manages to step towards me. "Now I finally get to kill you, Ami Hyuga. I didn't earlier as a favor to Sasuke, since he begged me not to. He is why I never had you killed. But now? Now you die!" He lunges forward with a kunai and the very last of his strength, and as I barely manage to get a slight amount of movement.
Ever since he said 'genjutsu' I've been channeling chakra all over my body, trying to cancel the effects. But it's not a true genjutsu since I inhaled a pill. During his whole speech, I've been desperately trying to dispel it, or have any part of my body move at all. Once he finishes his speech, he lunges for me, kunai in his hand. My eyes widen at the sight, and time seems to slow down as I watch the blade aiming for my heart. I do a last ditch idea and use the basic idea of the Rotation and send my chakra flying from every chakra port in my body.
It works, but not enough. Orochimaru braces himself, taking a lower stance, and plunges the knife deep into my stomach.
Pain beyond measure erupts from my torso where he manages to sink the knife in all the way up the hilt. My chakra spiking out managed to redirect it from hitting my heart, but this is still a serious and potentially fatal wound. We crash to the ground together, the creepy snake landing on top of me while he keeps the blade pressed into my stomach.
Orochimaru raises his other hand with a second kunai, ready to compensate for the mistake in aim. I look at the raised hand in fear, paralyzed underneath his body, hearing only his rasping breath chuckling evilly near my face as he grins sadistically at me.
I can then hear my teammates calling out, and look and see Neji doing the same thing I just did, only with more precisely. Neji launched chakra from his back, sending his frozen body forward at a high speed as it collided with Orochimaru's, sending it away from me and saving my life. When Neji knocked him off me, Orochimaru landed hard on the arrows in his stomach and lung and I could see they now pierced all the way through him, speeding up his death.
When the snake was launched off my body, the kunai in my stomach was unfortunately also ripped out, slashing me open more on its exit. Over the pain, I can feel movement starting to return to me, the blood loss speeding up the process of wearing off the paralysis pills.
"Lord Orochimaru! No!" Kabuto suddenly appears by his master's dying body from where it lays. "What have you done?!" He yells at us in anger.
"Kabuto..." Orochimaru chokes out to him. I start to reach as much as I can to put a hand over my wound, trying to stop the blood from flowing out. "We need to leave. Get Sasuke out of here." The Sannin breathes out to his subordinate. I grimace as I turn to watch Kabuto awkwardly lifting his master with his one arm and performing a Shushin jutsu to leave.
"Neji. Watch them." I grit out weakly to my brother as an order.
"Ami..." He is starting to twitch and be able to move his fingers slightly. "Stay awake Ami. Don't you dare fall asleep." He orders back at me.
"And miss all this fun?" I chuckle out humorlessly, then scream as the action caused more pain. "Not a chance." I say weakly.
"Ami, hang on. I can almost move again." Sensei says to me seriously. I can see him now in my line of sight as I struggle to keep my eyes open, he is slowly making his way towards me. Leave it to him to break out of the Jinchuriki paralysis first.
"Hang in there Ami, you have to brag to Lady Tsunade about killing Orochimaru. There's no way he can heal fmor those wounds, but you can, just hang in there." Lee says encouragingly, but I can hear the deep worry in his voice. I can't see my own wound, but it must look awful if Guy and Lee are this serious right now. I can feel more feeling coming back to me, so I press a little harder into my wound. I cough out weakly and feel blood covering my face from my internal bleeding.
Sensei finally makes his way over to me, movement coming back more and more to him. He squats down gingerly and picks me up very carefully, breathing heavily as he does it. He stands back up and starts to walk out of the room. "Neji, which way is Sakura?" He asks urgently.
"She's not far, head south for 200 meters, then take a left. She's a straight shot down that hall. Get my sister to her quickly." Neji pleads at the end, but Sensei is already heading off in the given direction.
"Did we really do it?" I ask him weakly, trying to keep myself conscious as he carries me in the dark hall.
"I think we did, Ami. He never stood a chance against the might of Team Guy. He really hated you though. And why would Sasuke have stopped him from killing you?" Guy ponders out to himself as he starts to be able to pick up his pace.
"He's my best friend. He would never let anything happen to me." I reply weakly, seeing the darkness creeping in. "Sensei..." I close my eyes, unable to keep them open anymore.
"Ami!" Sensei calls down to me, but his voice sounds like it's underwater. "Sakura!!" I hear him call out. I can just barely hear her voice before I succumb to the darkness completely.