Dosu's Great Escape

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Snake Sanin Unveiled!

Neji sped through the trees, feeling the weights on his feet all the harder. He'd forgotten to remove them when fighting Sakon. Now the fight was almost over, and it was doing no good. His Byakugan was active, and he was scanning the forest for his comrades.

There was Lee, kneeling down by Tenten. He could spot the largest of the Sound Ninja lying in a heap at the base of a broken tree. Then there was the spider, webbed up in his own nets and down. And there was the girl, defeated and Anko above her.

Finally-

What the hell was that?

He was looking at the chakra network of the humanoid, and it was like nothing he'd ever seen before. It was like a chakra network within another chakra network. Except they were merging and changing, similar to what Sakon had done. But whatever it was within was not absorbing the thing surrounding it. It was controlling it, surrounding the brain and the body like some sort of parasite. Yet it was difficult to see where the parasite began, and the host body was. And yet the parasite was not just on the inside. It also had formed a sort of layer over it, like a skin.

It was the most horrifying thing Neji had ever seen, and as he neared it, he dared not step out. He leaped to the top of a tree and examined the thing. Turning off his Byakugan, he saw a black-haired man with pale skin. Now that he wasn't looking at the chakra, he felt his killing intent and was frozen in place.

"What the hell am I looking at here?" wondered Neji, forcing himself to activated his Byakugan again. As he did, he searched for some kind of weakness.

"Orochimaru," said Anko, voice filled with hatred.

Orochimaru? The Legendary Sanin? The most deadly of the three. The leader of the Sound Village. That mad scientist who had been denied the position as Hokage. Then he'd been caught performing unholy experiments. The chill on Neji's spine got colder. That meant this thing had been human once.

That just made it worse.

What was he?!

Orochimaru leaped and in a flawless arc landed in front of Anko. A long tongue like a snake went over his lips as he moved forward. "My Anko, how you've grown. I hope you don't hold a grudge about the way we parted. After all, you were one of the only subjects that consented willingly. Even if you decided to break with me later."

"It was you who broke with me, you son of a bitch." snarled Anko.

"Really?" asked Orochimaru. "Didn't you run after me even though you knew there was a warrant for my arrest. Didn't you stay with me, even after I told you I did the things they accused me of."

"I didn't know what you were capable of," said Anko. "I couldn't conceive of how sick you really were. A few days watching all your other test subjects die under the curse mark you put on them made me realize the truth."

Orochimaru shrugged."It's unfortunate. But perfecting jutsu like that mark on your neck takes time, effort, and a great deal of sacrifice. For what it's worth, I was very pleased to see you resist it successfully. Because of you, I was able to perfect my technique, to great results.

"You should be proud, Anko. If you hadn't come with me, I might have given up when no one survived."

"Let me show you how proud I am!" shouted Anko.

Then she surged forward, arms becoming snakes, dozens upon dozens of snakes. But Orochimaru surged backward, weaving and dodging. Halting on the bark of a tree he raised his own hands and sent forth snakes to meet Anko's own. They dueled, and it was as if two hydras had emerged, each with a thousand heads. They surged around faster then Neji had ever seen.