Ascendance of the Flash

Chapter 12

Chapter 12
AN: Hey guys! I hope you liked the last chapter. While there was no badass fight scene, it did take me a while to come up with a scientific and logical way for Naruto to understand the curse mark. I'm pretty proud of the way I managed to connect the various pieces.

On another note, I hope you all don't expect my Itachi pursuit arc to be the same as canon. In fact, I shouldn't even be naming it as such. But there are some things that will coincide, so I figured why go through the trouble for coming up with a whole new name? Enjoy!

As Sasuke made his way to Orochimaru's room, he mentally reflected upon what he was about to do and questioned himself whether or not this was the correct course of action.

He shook his head. No use asking himself the same question again and again. Orochimaru had nothing left to give him anymore, nothing left to teach. Ever since Sasuke had joined forces with him, Orochimaru had closely monitored his progress. He quickly became the sannin's personal favorite, which meant he had access to the custom techniques created by the Sannin himself. Sasuke was all for learning any technique he could get his hands. The more options he had in his hands during his fight with Itachi, the better. Orochimaru even used chemical and drugs to enhance Sasuke's body, increasing his physical abilities and his resistance to toxic materials. Sasuke had improved a lot since coming here, and he didn't regret leaving Konoha behind at all. But there was one thing he failed to take into account.

His lips twitched at the thought of his teammate. Even when they were kids, Naruto was miles ahead of him. Now, he was strong enough to send Sasuke's master running back to his den on the verge of death. This meant that Naruto had surpassed the snake Sannin, and most probably Jiraiya as well. The man was Naruto's master and if the blonde's bingo book entry was right, Jiraiya was also one heck of a teacher.

Sasuke didn't know whether Naruto would become a thorn in his side or not. Sasuke had trouble understanding the blonde; Naruto had beat him within an inch of his life and brought him back to the leaf. Did that mean that he meant something to the blonde, or was Naruto just fulfilling his duty to the village? What would he do should he meet the blonde again?

He briefly shuddered, remembering how painful the process of sealing Naruto's Hiraishin mark had been. Orochimaru had tried many procedures, heck he even tried scraping off the skin where the seal was, leaving Sasuke in pure agony for hours. Ultimately, Orochimaru had to resort to tweaking Sasuke's curse seal. The Sannin had linked Naruto's Hiraishin marking to the cursed seal of heaven. Given how the Hiraishin marking held little more than a drop of Naruto's chakra, Orochimaru theorized that his own seal, which held his chakra and had completely merged with Sasuke's chakra, should manage to "dim" the sensory signature of the Hiraishin seal. In short, Naruto would have extreme difficulty in pinpointing Sasuke through the space-time jutsu.

Sasuke took comfort in the fact that Naruto didn't have an instant kill over him anymore.

Sasuke acknowledged this to no one, but a part of himself knew that should they fight again, Naruto would win. The blonde had a lot of raw power on his side, something which Sasuke was lacking compared to him. That, and Naruto had probably trained for more time than Sasuke. Sasuke himself had a few aces up his sleeve, but should the battle become a battle of attrition, he would lose. Which is why he believed that he needed to cover that weakness.

I can't afford to be weak when facing against Itachi.

He soon found himself facing the room in which his master was resting. Given how the man was coughing, it meant that he needed to change bodies soon. Orochimaru had wanted Sasuke to grow a little more so when the time came to possess him, the body would be in its prime.

Sasuke was having none of that. His pride argued that this wasn't a "true" fight; he was fighting Orochimaru at his weakest. But if the snake had taught him anything, it was to strike when the enemy was weak.