Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 125 SNEAKY

"There ain’t no way Orochimaru has someone in his ranks that is spying on him,” I said for what felt the 10th time. 

“But he said-“ Sakura tried to cut in but I stopped her. 

“An Akatsuki member said? I don’t trust his words. Even if he was telling the truth, I doubt Orochimaru is stupid enough to let it continue,” I said. 

“Then why are we even here?!” Naruto yelled angrily. I could almost feel the chakra pouring off of him. As he was getting older the seals on the Kyuubi were weakening. He was able to call the 9-tails chakra much more easily. When he did, he became unstable. 

The problem was he lost control of himself when it happened. Which is what I was trying to avoid. In canon Orochimaru showed up to the meeting and Naruto lost control. It was badass, but useless. 

“We are here because we have Kakashi,” I said. “If someone does come to this bridge. They should be coming from that side. The 4 of us spread out over a wide area. And when someone passes by we assume they are this supposed spy. Then Kakashi uses his dogs to track them back to whatever lair they came out of. If there really is a spy in Orochimaru’s camp. Maybe we will get lucky and Sasuke will be at the lair the spy came from.”

The 3 other members of team 7 looked to one another. It wasn’t too hard to convince them after that. So we spread out. We had arrived 2 days early. With our communicators we kept in constant contact. 

To my surprise on the 2nd day someone walked by my station. 2 someone’s in fact. Rather close too. They wore robes but it wasn’t too hard to recognize the rear person was Orochimaru. He didn’t try to hide his bloodthirsty presence. The other was Kabuto. His lead ninja lackey. 

I held my breath. Too scared to move. After completing the Gantz world early and getting increased rewards, I wanted to do the same for Naruto. But I wasn’t confident enough to fight Orochimaru or Obito to finish the story early. 

Since I was able to beat Sasori I felt I could beat a few more Akatsuki members. But after the Kage Killer poison I didn’t want to push my luck too much. 

When Orochimaru and Kabuto were far enough away I called the others. They quickly ran to my location. I had hoped to receive a quest but no such luck. 

Kakashi summoned his dog and we were quickly on our way following the path the ninjas had come from. It was a long way but they had walked in pretty much a fairly straight line. Unworried about who would see them. 

Naruto was getting more and more agitated. His Kyuubi chakra leaking into his movements as he sped up. To distract him I planned aloud. 

Dealing with Sasuke was not a simple distract and slap him in the back. We were planning to do something he didn’t want. It was going to take all we had to hold onto him. 

I was fairly certain he was a practitioner of Itachi’s mind trap Genjutsu. The mirror to my own Makuramoto. Where his was used for pain to break a man’s spirit. Mine could use pain or pleasure to do the same thing. 

I had a plan I wanted to try of course. The Uchiha, while strong, were also overconfident. I had promised to kick Sasuke’s ass the last time I’d seen him. I wanted to prove I could. 

—-

We ran down the hall. My Chikyugi necklace hanging from my neck it was creepy to have all the dark corridors around me. But Kakashi’s dog was on the scent. 

“Just ahead,” the dog spoke. It was a small brown pug. I couldn’t remember his name. Pacman or something. I was too embarrassed to ask. 

The plan had me in the lead. Kakashi in the back, Naruto and Sakura at my sides. The pink Chikyugi necklace jostled around my neck with each footfall. 

I wasn’t sure how long the damn tunnel could be but then we were through. He was there. In a gray robe with the front open. He had the weird purple rope decorations at his waist like Orochimaru. 

A thin blade at his hand it sparked with electricity as he turned to face us. My necklace drew his eye for a split second and that was all I needed. A wide smile crossed my face as chakra poured from me into him. 

I kept the lie going. But instead of slowing down time, I made time flow at the same rate. We were still in the room. Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi were breathing heavily behind me. And Sasuke still gave us all a sneer. 

“What are you doing here?” Sasuke asked. He had only glanced at me. His eyes moved to the others. Focusing on them as he asked the question in a bored tone. 

“We came to save you!” Naruto yelled. 

“Save?” Sasuke scoffed. “You still think I need saving?”

“Sasuke. It’s Orochimaru, you can’t trust him,” Kakashi said. 

“I can’t trust anyone,” the emo protagonist said. “Can’t rely on anyone. What are you really doing here?”

“Sasuke, we want you to come home,” Sakura cried. I dialed the tears back a little. But gave myself a mental thumbs up on the neediness. 

“Home?” Sasuke laughed. “I haven’t had a home since my family was killed. You all aren’t my home.”

“That’s not very nice,” I cut in. “These people actually like you for some reason.”

“They even coaxed you into coming, Weston?” Sasuke laughed. I felt honored that he remembered my name.

“Well yeah,” I said. “I promised to kick your ass the last time I saw you.”

Sasuke smirked. Then we locked eyes. His eyes widened when nothing happened. 

“Oh you finally noticed?” I asked. “We are in my Genjutsu.”

“Why?” He asked angrily. I could tell he was trying to break out. But it was too late. 

“So we could have a conversation,” I admitted. “Without these 3.”

“Sasuke, you're the emo brother I never had,” Naruto said. 

“Sasuke, I want to be with you because I like being a doormat,” Sakura said. 

“Sasuke, we have the same eyes or something. Who knows why I like you,” Kakashi said. 

“What game are you playing?” Sasuke asked angrily. Still trying to break out of the Genjutsu. There were only 2 ways I knew of. Being prepared for it or a teammate breaking you out. I was sure he could force himself out somehow. But it wouldn’t be easy. 

“Nothing, I just think you’re working on very limited information,” I admitted. “Did you ever wonder why your brother killed your clan?” Sasuke didn’t answer. I kept going. I wanted to give him some kernels, but not all of it. “Danzo was the leader of the ANBU. He found out the Uchiha’s were planning a coup. Your brother loved the village. He agreed to end your family all for the sake of the village.”

Sasuke’s eyes bulged. “What are you talking about!? How can you know this?!”

“I know this because Danzo is dead. It was in his notes,” I lied about the last part. “Do what you want with the information. While we are here Sakura is preparing to remove the cursed seal.”

“What?!” Sasuke raged angrily. “I need it!”

“You don’t need it,” I said. “It’s a poison of Orochimaru’s. See that’s what I don’t get. Sakura and Naruto offer to help you. Legitimate help. You refuse them. Heck if you had one of them as a teammate right now you wouldn’t be stuck in this illusion. But you need Orochimaru’s help? A man you could kill. You need his help? It just doesn’t make sense Mr. Avenger…then again in MHA I’m killing on my own. I hadn’t thought about that. Ohhh so you don’t want their help to protect them?” I thought about it. That made more sense. “Okay yeah, whatever. Carry on.”

I could tell the goth boy was confused. But he was injected with chakra and we were thrown out of his mind. We appeared in the room. 

Kakashi was holding one of Sasuke’s arms. Naruto the other. Sakura was at his front. Her hand at his neck it hovered over the cursed seal as she poured chakra into it. 

As Sasuke screamed in pain she pulled her hand away. As she did, a long white snake was pulled out of the cursed seal. Sakura threw it back at me and I twirled my water coated Seastone Jitte, cutting it’s head off. The snake hissed but turned into dust without any more drama. 

The 5 of us stood there. Breathing heavily. I moved around Sakura to see that the cursed seal really was gone from Sasuke’s neck. One of the last Uchihas breathed in and out heavily. The rest of Team 7 at my signal all let go of him and backed away. 

Sasuke struggled to not fall to his knees. He stared at the 3 of his old teammates one by one. 

“Why…did you…do that?” He growled. 

“Because, we researched the cursed seals and found that a part of Orochimaru was in all of them.” 

“Like Voldemort,” I whispered. Snakes, Horcrux like things in people, it all fit. 

“That’s it?!” Sasuke yelled as he stood erect. “That’s all?! You came here to do just that?!”

“I…” Sakura started. “I said what I needed to say on the river. I am here if you need me.”

Sasuke looked to Naruto. “Yeah. Guess I did too. Didn’t do any good back then. Now that I know we’ve helped a little. And seen that you’re okay. I guess I can admit that you don’t need us. You do what you need to do. We will always have a spot for you back home.”

Sasuke scoffed but looked to Kakashi. Kakashi surprised me by looking at me. I guessed he frowned under the mouth mask. “I’m on your side. Always have been. As someone who has gotten my own revenge. I can’t judge you for wanting to get it. I just worry about all 3 of you. I will abide by your decisions.”

They stayed like that. Sasuke unbelieving what he was hearing. I kind of was too. I expected Naruto to blow a gasket. Or Sakura to start crying and throwing herself at Sasuke. But she was calm and collected. I was proud of her. 

“Fine. Leave,” Sasuke said bluntly. 

There it was. Naruto’s anger and Sakura’s hopeful neediness. They really thought if they acted that way he would ask for help. Now that he wasn’t. Their faces revealed their true feelings. 

I walked over to them. “Great. You know of another exit around here? I swear where we came in was about 5 miles that way. There’s gotta be a secret hatch somewhere.”

Sasuke stared at me wide eyed. Well I assumed he did. I looked at his hands. I wasn’t about to look an Uchiha in the eyes. Then he gave us directions to a another exit close by. 

I was soon dragging Naruto out of the tunnel with me. Sakura and Kakashi trailing behind. We came out to the surface from a well hidden base of a stump in the ground. 

The sun still shining I let out a sigh. I had remembered this arc was filled with drama. I was glad it was over and I hadn’t fallen asleep or skipped a chapter once. 

“Did we do the right thing?” Sakura asked. 

“Do you think fighting him would have done anything?” I asked. 

“No,” Naruto said in a monotone voice. He was still in a daze. 

“Maybe we could have-“ Sakura tried to say but I cut her off. 

“We are ninjas, guys. Not marriage counselors. You can lead a horse to water. But you can’t make them drink. What you did today was helpful. Even if he didn’t see it like that. And if we had fought him down there. Orochimaru could have joined in at any time. I don’t know about you. But if the 3rd Hokage couldn’t beat him. I don’t have much hope we could.”

“But you think Sasuke can?” Sakura asked. 

“I know he can. Uchihas have a broken ability when it comes to fighting.” Just like I had a broken ability when it came to fucking. “Now come on. You need a training arc, Naruto. And I’d like to save another Jinchuriki.” I grabbed his shoulder and started them walking toward the village.