Black as Blood

XV

Orochimaru was reclining on a flat rock when Sasuke woke, a book in his hands, yellow eyes listlessly following the lines of writing. The former Sannin looked up at the movement, watching Sasuke sit up and glance around as if to make sure he was all in one piece and Naruto was still nearby. The blonde slept still, on a pallet to Sasuke’s left, and the darker boy relaxed. Orochimaru rose then, book dropped onto the pile of coals, making the dying flames arise anew, illuminating the cave that Orochimaru had brought them to.

“I don’t know how he makes so much money writing such crap,” Orochimaru said, staring as the flames devoured Icha Icha.

“You think you could do better?” Sasuke asked, watching as his former teacher moved toward those coals, crouching beside the flames, poking at the coals with a metal needle. Orochimaru snorted, canting his head toward the younger Uchiha.

“It’s drivel. I have better things to spend my time on. Did you convince him?”

“I haven’t told him.”

“Well that’s just peachy.” Orochimaru set the needle down and rose to his full height, looking at the boy. “I was hoping to avoid speaking with Tsunade.”

Sasuke sighed, looking at the elder apologetically. Orochimaru waved a hand in dismissal, moving to catch Sasuke’s face in a tight hold. The elder looked at the scar across his face, studying it as he used to scrutinize every new recruit that happened upon Sound. Sasuke relaxed in that hold, closing his other eye. Naruto stirred.

“How has it been?” Naruto heard Orochimaru ask. Someone shifted to his side, and the blonde turned his head to see Sasuke sitting there, his back to Naruto, facing Orochimaru and the red-hot needle that the man held between his fingers.

“It stopped hurting a while ago. Is it ready?”

“Are you? It will be strange, looking at the world.”

“Just do it.”

Orochimaru nodded and approached Sasuke, taking the younger Uchiha’s face in his empty hand and tilting it up, exposing the scarred eye to that needle. Naruto moved then, fearing for Sasuke, but the golden gaze stilled him.

“Do you want me to screw up, Naruto?”

“Relax, Naruto,” Sasuke said. “I’ll be fine.”

“Fine? That guy gave you that scar in the first place!” Naruto shouted. “Sasuke!”

“Fine way to treat the guy who saved your ass,” Orochimaru said dryly. “Just shut up and sit down, boy. And you, Sasuke, be quiet lest this needle miss.”

Naruto fumed, watching that needle dip into the scar tissue covering Sasuke’s eyelid, the smell of flesh burning hurting Naruto’s nostrils. Slowly Orochimaru cut the needle through the scar tissue, stepping back to get a cloth, wiping blood away before pressing that cloth to the socket with the order to hold it there. Naruto watched as Orochimaru put the needle back into the fire, moving to the rear of the cave to get another cloth, this one rung out and switched with the bloody rag over Sasuke’s eye.

“Hold that there. Naruto, come here.” Orochimaru looked toward the blonde, eyes narrowing. “Come here. Now.”

Swallowing, Naruto looked at Sasuke and moved forward only when the darker nodded, moving beside Orochimaru. The elder male handed him a bundle and bade him to take it over to Sasuke. Naruto did as told, setting the bundle beside the darker, watching the elder’s face. Orochimaru moved over to the boys, opening that bundle to reveal a tiny jar. Elegant fingers opened the jar, revealing a clear salve, the jar lifted and set into Naruto’s hands.

“Take only a bit,” Orochimaru instructed, “and when Sasuke removes that cloth, spread it on his eye. It will stop the bleeding.”

“Why should we trust you?” Naruto spat, though he did as instructed when Sasuke removed the cloth without a warning, the clear salve becoming pink as Naruto smeared it on his beloved’s scarred eye.

“He needs us, Naruto. Look, I told you before, I haven’t been completely honest with you.” Sasuke said softly. Orochimaru took the moment to back away, standing in the shadows to watch his protégé and the boy who housed Kyuubi. Naruto was staring at Sasuke, expressionless, waiting.

“So tell me now.” Naruto whispered, making Sasuke shiver.

“Everything I told you before, what I told Tsunade, the Council, even Ibiki, was true. Orochimaru let me go, he doesn’t need me anymore. But he needs someone like I need you. We discovered that, when combined, Shiro and Kyuubi could do something that defies nature. Their powers create a phoenix effect.” Sasuke said, looking down at his lap. “He wants to revive Kimimaru.”

Naruto stared for a moment, Kyuubi oddly silent in his mind. Orochimaru had let Sasuke go, but with a price. In order for Sasuke to be free, he had to perform one last duty, one last task, and then he’d be left alone. Naruto looked at Sasuke, finally reaching to touch that closed eye, rubbing the salve as gently as he could. When he drew his hand back, he found himself staring into both of Sasuke’s eyes, one that was pure black, and the other that was black and yellow. A wolf’s eye.

“Orochimaru’s payment.”
---
Their backs collided, both standing as defensively as they could. Orochimaru hefted Kusunagi, the blade held toward the approaching ANBU. Sasuke was weakening; already he’d lost too much blood. The boy could barely stand, but still he had the strength to fight. Blood covered the left side of his face, his eye gone, his body pushed to its final limits. If Orochimaru couldn’t figure a way out of this, his protégé wasn’t going to survive. The fact they’d been caught in the first place boggled his mind. They’d been careful since re-entering Hi no Kuni, masking their presence and keeping to moving at night, when their stealth would benefit them most. Sasuke faltered, the ANBU sprung. Orochimaru cut several down in their leap, his free arm swinging to catch under Sasuke’s arms, lifting the boy up as he darted through the arterial blood spray, disappearing into the night. They left Hi no Kuni quicker than when they entered it, Orochimaru finding one of his old haunts to inhabit. He dropped Sasuke rather unceremoniously on a pile of blankets, crouching to take stock of the damage done to his future vessel that had come to mean more than that to him. The boy was his protégé, the only one to know his secrets and to master them. Now he was ruined.

Orochimaru vented his anger on the objects around Sasuke, watching the boy curl up with a hand pressed to the grievous wound. Orochimaru knew Sasuke felt as though he had failed and he had. He’d failed horribly. There was no way now he could be useful. Orochimaru watched the boy for a long while before he moved over to him, hands set on the boy’s shoulders. Sasuke looked up and then away. Orochimaru knew why. He’d given up everything and now everything he’d worked toward was nothing more than a dream. They spent a week healing and Orochimaru spent that week researching. He found a suitable candidate and the process began. Painstakingly, and with Sasuke conscious the whole time, Orochimaru transplanted a wolf’s eye into the empty socket. His protégé was in immense pain, he knew, but Sasuke never screamed nor cried. Orochimaru wouldn’t have pitied him if he had. The final step was to close the eyelid to let the healing take place.

Sasuke had left the moment he could move, Orochimaru tailing the boy on his way back. He’d let the boy go with the condition of performing one final act before Orochimaru disappeared from his life for good. Orochimaru needed to be sure his experiment worked, he needed to be sure Sasuke could take care of himself, and could be taken care of. So he let Sasuke go, let the boy pave the way, and followed.
---
“So Orochimaru wasn’t the one who did this to you in the first place?” Naruto asked, studying the wolf’s eye in Sasuke’s head. The younger Uchiha gave a soft sigh.

“No. He gave me a second chance to be able to see. In return, I’d convince you to help me in resurrecting Kimimaru.”

“I don’t understand though,” Naruto whispered after a few silent moments. “Tsunade’s report said that whatever had happened to you had crushed the retina, destroyed the lens and cornea. Not just that but the report said the destroyed eye was still in the socket.”

“A simple illusion,” Sasuke replied. “The healing had to be done in secret. If Tsunade or any other medic noticed that the scar was just for aesthetic purposes, they’d have opened my eye before it was ready.”

“So he basically gave you a wolf’s eye to replace your own, and got scar tissue to grow over it to hide that fact, plus added a spell that would give anyone probing a false message?”

“In a nutshell, yeah.” Sasuke answered, looking at his hands. “If the healing had been interrupted, I would be permanently blind in my left eye. The eye would have rotted in my skull and I’d be even more useless due to infection.”

Naruto turned to look at Orochimaru, the man watching both of them, his face carefully neutral. Naruto couldn’t understand why Orochimaru would help Sasuke, but the pieces of the puzzle were slowly starting to fall into place. He understood Orochimaru’s feelings to a point, but he couldn’t bring himself to trust the former Sannin as Sasuke did. Sasuke looked at the elder man, then back at Naruto, head tilting to the side. Naruto finally nodded, fingers running over Sasuke’s cheeks. The blonde turned to Orochimaru, arm around Sasuke’s shoulder.

“We’ll help you. But we have to go back to Konoha. If we don’t, the Council will kill Sasuke.”

Orochimaru’s lips curled into a snarl. “I never liked those old farts. Can you stand, Sasuke?”

The dark haired boy slid off the table, wobbling until Naruto supported him. He nodded and Orochimaru gestured for them to make their way out. The fire was doused and the three exited the cave, Orochimaru leading them toward the village. It wasn’t as far as Naruto had thought they’d be originally, but it was slow going, with Sasuke wounded as he was. Still, it was just before sunrise when they entered Konoha, bee-lining for the Hokage’s tower. Their easy passage was too good to be true. Naruto shifted Sasuke closer and looked toward Orochimaru. The former Sannin was slowly raising his hands in submission. Naruto looked up into Kakashi’s eyes, the Sharingan whirling. Naruto recognized Neji and Rock Lee, Raidou and Genma, Might Gai, Anko, Kurenai, and many other jounin surrounding them. Their faces were grim, a herald of the pain that was going to be visited upon Orochimaru if not Sasuke as well. Kakashi moved forward then, reaching out for Sasuke, presumably to take him into custody. Everyone stilled when Naruto began to snarl, even Kakashi. Sasuke only clung to Naruto, looking up at the jounin around them, and then over at Orochimaru. He wasn’t concerned with the jounin surrounding them, rather he was watching a rather voluptuous woman push her way through the ranks, Tsunade coming to stand before Orochimaru, hands on her hips.

“You’d better have a good explanation why you’re here, in the company of two of my jounin, Orochimaru.” Tsunade growled.