He Was A Friend: Chapter 8

Chapter 8

The hideout was dark when he entered.  No one had been there for several days.  Slowly, Kabuto inched through the darkness.  He didn’t dare risk tripping over some scattered piece of equipment and dropping either Orochimaru or Sasuke.  He couldn’t afford to.  He had to make everything right again if it was the last thing he did.  

Finally he made his way to the medical tables that stood in the center of the room.  He placed Orochimaru on one and Sasuke on the other, strapping them down in turn.  Already tiring of the darkness, Kabuto stumbled across the darkened room and lit several candles.  The soft light did little to dispel the stifling darkness that seemed to hang about the lair, but they did make it somewhat easier to see.  

Kabuto returned to the center of the room.  With a gentle shove, he rolled the tables together so that he could position his master’s hand on the Uchiha boy’s forehead.  Contact was crucial in this jutsu.  If the bodies weren’t touching there would be no way to transfer the soul from one to the other.  

With Orochimaru’s hand securely on Sasuke’s forehead, Kabuto was ready to begin the jutsu.  He placed his hands, one over the other over Orochimaru’s, just as he had the first time.  Gathering chakra in his hands, he began to count down, thinking of what needed to be done.  

San…concentrate; the spirits must first be extracted.  Ni…once the spirits are out they must be switched before they dissipate.  Ichi…put Orochimaru-sama’s soul in Sasuke-kun’s body.  Force the chakra into the body to seal the soul once its there.  Sit back and wait…yes…wait for Orochimaru-sama to wake.  That was it.  San, Ni, Ichi...Mokka (now)!

Chakra exploded in Kabuto’s hands, so fiercely that it seemed to him that a mighty wind blew through the hideout.  He held his hands fast on Sasuke’s forehead, willing both Orochimaru and the boy’s spirits to come free of their bodies.  Something changed in the bodies and he knew that the spirits had obeyed his will.  He concentrated harder, following the spirit trails with his chakra and latching on to them with invisible tendrils of power to keep them from escaping.  

With all of his might, Kabuto began to drag Orochimaru’s soul towards Sasuke’s body.  Something in his arms tore apart, a muscle or perhaps a blood vessel, and an unbearable pain threatened to break his concentration.  He cried out in pain, but still willed the spirit closer to the body.  The chakra at his hands glowed brighter now, the bluish tint becoming tainted with faint streaks of white and yellow.  

Something was wrong.  The jutsu was not working properly.  Orochimaru would die if he didn’t do something soon.  He released even more chakra, attempting to pull the spirit into the body quicker.  

Suddenly Sasuke’s eyes shot open.  Kabuto faltered.  The boy’s spirit should have been gone!  Why was he awake?!  Sasuke gasped for breath and stared at Kabuto and the ceiling above him with a blank, zombie-like stare.  He blinked once, then again, and with one last breath let out a scream that vibrated the walls and floor around them.  

Kabuto’s concentration was lost completely.  The chakra that held the spirits of his master and the Uchiha boy vanished and the spirits were free once more.  The abrupt end to the jutsu caused an explosion of chakra and hot air.  Kabuto was thrown across the room and into one of the medical tables.  He was knocked unconscious the moment he hit.  The impact knocked several lit candles rolling across the floor and tables.  Papers and medical chemicals caught fire and smoke filled the room.

The tables that held Sasuke and Orochimaru’s bodies were overturned.  Neither of them woke.  Whatever it was that had animated Sasuke’s spiritless body was now gone and he was as still as death itself.  Flames spread from across the lair and slowly consumed their bodies, along with Kabuto’s that still lay slumped against the wall.  

When daylight finally broke over the horizon all that remained was a pile of charred wood and scattered bone.  There were no bodies to be found; no indication of the three lives that had burned out with the fire.  The air reeked of smoke and desolation and death.  

Death, yes, that was the ultimate punishment for all who attempted a forbidden jutsu.  Perhaps, just at the end, Kabuto had realized this.  Perhaps Sasuke’s body never moved at all.  Maybe the boy hadn’t screamed that unearthly scream that shook the floor and Kabuto’s very bones.  It could have just been a hallucination, an omen of death resulting from all the foolish things Kabuto had done in his life.  

But what did it matter.  Death had consumed them all.  They had spent years trying to cheat it…but no one can cheat death.  It will always catch up.

And so on that day the souls of the forsaken shinobi rose from the ashes, ascending into the sky with the billows of black smoke that rode on the breeze.