He Was A Friend: Prologue

Prologue

“The time has come,” Orochimaru said eagerly as he eyed the 15-year-old boy before him.  “Sasuke-kun.  The time has come to give me your body, as promised.”

Sasuke Uchiha turned to stare into Orochimaru’s cold, snake-like eyes.  “The deal,” He replied in a voice that would have chilled any normal person to the bone.  “I do believe, was that you wouldn’t even think of touching my body until I saw to Itachi’s death.”

Orochimaru smirked and licked his lips with his unnaturally long tongue.  “How foolish you are, Sasuke-kun,” He chuckled in amusement.  “That you have not yet realized that you can’t defeat your brother without my power.”

Sasuke’s eyes narrowed and he glared at his ‘master.’  “If I cannot defeat Itachi with my own power than I am nothing; I have lived my life for nothing.  You will not have my body until that day.”

Sasuke glared at Orochimaru for several moments more before turning and walking out the door.  Orochimaru’s eyes twitched.  From that glare he was able to infer Sasuke’s thoughts.  The boy thought he was weak and would be of no use.  Orochimaru smirked at this; he was more than ready to prove Sasuke wrong.  “Kabuto,” He called, summoning his second-in-command out of the shadows.  “You know what to do.”

The silver-haired boy nodded and crept out the door after Sasuke, Orochimaru’s current dream container.  He followed him for some time, inching closer and closer until he was finally near enough to attack.  Gathering chakra in his hand he lunged forward to smack Sasuke in the middle of the back.  Sasuke’s body immediately went limp, the chakra blast from Kabuto’s hand sending him into unconsciousness.  

Sasuke’s body crumpled and began to fall sideways onto the ground. Kabuto caught him before he hit, not wanting Orochimaru’s future body to be damaged.  Then, without warning, Sasuke’s limp body turned into a log in Kabuto’s arms.  “Kuso!” Kabuto spat.  “A substitution jutsu!”

“Surprised?” Sasuke’s far-from-amused voice called from a tree branch above Kabuto’s head.  Kabuto smirked and Sasuke felt something sharp poke him in the lower back.  

“No,” Kabuto whispered in Sasuke’s ear.  The Kabuto on the path disappeared into a cloud of smoke and Sasuke cursed himself for being so careless.  He winced as Kabuto’s kunai knife jabbed harder into his back.  “Now you have two choices:  Go back peacefully or go back unconscious.  I think it would be better for both of us if you chose the former, but that’s entirely up to you.”

“I’m not going back.” Sasuke growled.  He took a step forward, leaping off the tree branch and onto the ground, Kabuto’s kunai cutting a gash through his shirt and flesh from his lower back to right below his shoulder blade.  He hissed in pain but managed to land on his solidly on his feet.  

Kabuto leapt gracefully out of the tree and landed before Sasuke.  With one deft move Sasuke jumped into the air and began to somersault over Kabuto’s head.  The medical ninja had anticipated this and thrust one of his chakra-shrouded hands upwards and into the dark-haired boy’s chest.  Sasuke coughed and blood spewed out of his mouth.  He crumpled in mid-air and fell into Kabuto’s grasp once again.  This time he was undeniably unconscious.  

Kabuto hefted Sasuke onto his shoulder, sheathed his kunai knife, and carried the boy back to Orochimaru’s hidden lair. Before he would present him to his master again, he had to heal the boy’s wounds.  For Kabuto, a trained medical ninja, it would take mere moments.

When Kabuto finally brought Sasuke before Orochimaru, Sasuke was still unconscious.  Orochimaru raised a curious eyebrow at his second-in-command but didn’t bother to ask what had happened.  He really didn’t care.  “Put him on the table.” Orochimaru ordered.  “And strap him down; I don’t want him getting away again.”

Kabuto did as he was told.  Sasuke didn’t awaken until Kabuto was tightening the last of the restraints around him.  “I swear if I ever get out of here, I’ll kill you!  I’ll kill you both!” Sasuke hissed as he struggled against the leather straps that held him in place.  “I won’t let you stop me from defeating my brother with my own power!”

Orochimaru chuckled and smeared blood from his right hand down his left arm.  He motioned Kabuto forward.  The silver-haired boy pricked one of Sasuke’s fingers and then wiped the blood down Orochimaru’s right arm.  With an evil grin Orochimaru stalked to the head of the table and placed his hands on Sasuke’s forehead, right over left.  Kabuto followed his master, making hand-signs as he went, finally stopping as he made the final one.  

His hands descended towards Orochimaru’s on Sasuke’s forehead.  Sasuke’s eyes grew wide, knowing that nothing could be done now.  In the few seconds before Kabuto’s hands met Orochimaru’s, Sasuke’s head was spinning.  He saw his entire life flash before him: Kunai practice with Itachi, spraining his ankle and needing his older brother to carry him home, returning home after school one day to find his clan murdered and discovering that Itachi was the one who’d done it, his years at the academy that followed, the day that he’d been placed on a team with Sakura and Naruto, their first big mission to the Land of Waves, awakening the sharingan within him, the chuunin exams, meeting Itachi again after all those years only to be defeated, the Sound Four, his epic battle with Naruto, and finally, his decision to join Orochimaru.  From there everything was irrelevant.  He realized that now, when it was far too late to turn back.  He had been a fool and he probably deserved what he was about to get.

Kabuto’s hands finally touched their mark and a strange mix of chakra began to fill Sasuke’s body.  Spots danced before his eyes and he knew this was it.  No longer would he be Uchiha Sasuke.  He began to slip into unconsciousness.  As his world slowly closed in around him Sasuke summoned the last of his strength and screamed at the top of his lungs.  “Uchiha Itachi!”

Then everything went black.