THE WILL OF FIRE: 3. The Crow (A Naruto Fanfic)

The Crow, Chapter 6

Chapter Six

I had no idea what I was doing back at that place. I guess it was instinct. When I was little and used to study under Uncle Orochimaru I decided to find myself a hideout of my own. So I found this underground chamber that probably used to be a hiding place during one Shinobi war or the other. It had this one huge area where I could experiment and do anything I wanted. Then there was one door leading to a small one-bed bedroom and one door leading to the bathroom. The location was also pretty amazing because It was near the Hidden Grass Village which was close to the Land of Earth, Land of Fire, the Hidden Rain Village and Land of Rivers. It was further away from Uncle Orochimaru's Sound Village but I liked that particular distance. I also decorated it in my own way and put protective jutsus and charms around it. If you weren't me, you couldn't find it.

So I settled myself on the floor in the middle of the main room and assumed Shikamaru's preferred thinking position. I didn't know what I wanted to do from this point forward and, according to me, I had all the time in the world. I unpacked the scrolls in copy-cated from Uncle Orochimaru. I hadn't made any progress in breaking the seals so I had something to busy myself over for the next four days. I shut myself out completely and worked day and night on them.

For a while that was all there was to my world. No other people, just me and the scrolls and one million ways of trying to break the seals. I forgot what a bed felt like. But I finally managed to break a seal after four days. The important one. And after studying it thoroughly I felt like kicking and punching something. The other scroll was immediately forgotten. It didn't matter now. This. This piece of information I was holding in my hands could change the course of everything. But something else came to mind soon after. My cousin told me this story once and, about some brothers and all I could remember was that this one brother brought his wife back from the dead but she wasn't the same as if she were living. And of course I asked him why? And he simply answered, "Because once a soul passes over to the other side and someone is truly dead, they can never really return back to us."

So what I was holding in my hand was sick. Corrupted on so many levels. But genius at the same time. It was the exact answer I'd been looking for. I could do it. I could learn it. I could change everything. Once someone is truly dead, they can never return to us.

I had to stand up and stretch my legs. I also sent a mental note to Naruto just mentioning that I managed to escape and will be heading back to the Village. He had his own mission to do. I had mine. I woke up from the haze I was in and decided to leave the place and go to Uncle Orochimaru. I knew our last meeting didn't work out so well and he practically disowned me but there was some stuff we needed to go over.

I calculated which hideout he chose and travelled there, only once stopping for food because I realized I haven't eaten in four days (how I survived, you ask? Meditation works wonders on the human mind). I expected insane tension when I arrived. I had no idea how people would perceive me again. But this time it was different. The hideout was almost completely deserted and for a moment I thought I miscalculated somewhere but I wasn't wrong after all. I sensed Uncle Orochimaru's presence. Him and a few of his test subjects I didn't particularly recognize. And no one else. So I walked straight in. I knew that if it were a trap I would be able to get myself out of it no problem.

I found him in a darkened room, lying on the bed, still disabled from Sarutobi's last fight. I was surprised his pet Kabuto wasn't anywhere near him. I threw the scroll in front of him and sat down on the bed, maintaining a fair distance.

"So you managed to break the seal," he said. "It was only a matter of time."

"This is beyond anything you've ever gone."

"True. But I perfected it to the minimum."

"Manipulating life and death is not perfecting it to the minimum. You're toying with the natural order."