✔︎ Two Morons And A Mad House (2/2)

Chapter 13; A Battle

Itachi and Madara were tense, warm bodies in this too cold room beside her. They hid their anxiety well, both using that stone-faced gift all Uchihas seemed to be born with. Well, all Uchihas except Shisui, it seemed.

Sakura forced herself to not look at Shisui, to not take inventory of his wounds or if his chest was rising up and down. She looked at Orochimaru through a hooded gaze, leaning her weight on one foot nonchalantly. If she could just divert his attention from the bleeding body on the table to her, to her sharp words thrown at him like knifes . . . then maybe, maybe they'd get an opening.

Orochimaru was chuckling, and it sounded like the rattling of something about to break. "Pretty little SSSSSSSakura-chan. I can't tell you how happy I am that you're here for thisssss. It's been a long time coming, you know." His snake-like eyes slithered over to Madara. "I wonder, have you heard the sssstory yet, of how the great Madara Uchiha lost his hubrissss and reputation because of the death of an innocent child?"

At that moment Sakura was beyond grateful that Kakashi had told her everything; Orochimaru was trying to throw her off, to get a reaction out of her and see just how much she knew, if they were all still keeping secrets from her. "Oh?" she drawled. "That story? Seemed like you had more to do with the death of 'an innocent child' than anyone else."

He quirked his head at her. Sakura froze. "I suppose you are correct, SSSSakura-chan. Little Rin was cleverer than I had expected. A pity that she couldn't be more useful." He sighed, like her death was something that simply couldn't have been prevented, like she died of an illness or natural disaster. Like it was simply something that was. "I admit I lost my temper, but Obito was not as . . . gifted as I'd expected."

Sakura licked her lips. "Gifted?"

"The Uchiha gene is very particular. What would you say if I told you that, if replicated, could cure certain defects in children?"

"I . . . don't understand." She really didn't. This was more than likely the ravings of a madman, but . . . there was still that annoyingly little voice in her head-the scientific, selfish, and greedy part of her-that was curious. That wanted to know about the mere possibility of such a thing. The things that it could accomplish.

She'd seen the journals and entries. Maybe that was why some of the crates had been left open-so she could see and read about experiments already done and see that, though through extreme methods, some of them paid off. Some of them worked. It was the reason Madara had first made deals with Orochimaru, after all.

Orochimaru drew his gaze up and down her figure, and Sakura had to repress a shudder. "Genes-genetics-are a peculiar thing. Why do you have pink hair and green eyes? Because it was passed down to you from previous generations. Because even though neither of your parents have pink hair, they were carriers. Now, pink hair-while unique and pretty, don't misunderstand, Sakura-chan-is, at its core, useless. But it makes one wonder how it came to be from the beginning. If religion is to be believed and the first humans were Adam and Eve and, say, Adam was blond and Eve was brunette, how did someone like you, generations and generations down the road, end up with pink hair? Were they both carriers? And if so, what about people with black or red hair? They couldn't have been carriers of all of them. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, does it?"

Sakura was only half paying attention. The thing about narcissists was that they saw themselves as gods, and the thing about people who saw themselves as gods was that they liked to talk. It was all very tedious in Sakura's opinion and she was more focused on Shisui and the fact that she could not see his chest moving and that considerably worried her.

"Is there something to be gained from this little scientific and religion rant, or are you just talking to hear yourself talk?" Madara growled.

Orochimaru continued as if he hadn't spoken. "The Uchiha clan carries an interesting gene in their eyes, you see. I'm sure you've noticed their habit of getting red eyes when their emotions are running high. That's enough to warrant some kind of attention, but then there's also the fact that the Uchihas are seemingly perfect at everything."