Chapter Text
Sasuke has always hated being inside Orochimaru's base.
It's dark. Damp. Musty. Sometimes the pipes leak and everyone has to deal with the mud it causes. There are snakes everywhere - okay, that's not too bad of a thing, Sasuke likes animals and they're decent companions ignoring the whole Orochimaru thing - but they like to watch people from the shadows and you had to be careful where you stepped or you'd receive a snake bite to the ankle.
The worst part, though, is not the base itself. Sasuke can live with those conditions. No, the worst part is Kabuto. The worst part is Kabuto and Orochimaru and the labs, the tables with the leather restraints and the cages and the syringes of poisons but also Kabuto. Sneaky bastard. He'd left Sasuke tied to the table once, half naked and aching where he'd been operated on sans anaesthetic, and in conclusion Sasuke was now an expert in escaping restraints.
He supposes it shouldn't be too surprising that eventually he gets fed up with living with a sociopathic criminal and his ethics violation of an assistant. It also shouldn't be too surprising when Sasuke fights Orochimaru, absorbs him in a complete reversal of what was intended, and then burns him into ash. And then electrocutes that ash into even more ash, because overkill doesn't exist with someone like Orochimaru, and then leaves.
Kabuto flees when Sasuke confronts him, regrettably escaping, and he decides it's not worth it to go hunting down the ethics violation. Instead, he disposes of all the materials and burns everything else to ash, taking particular pleasure in utterly destroying the lab table.
Ashes surround him as Sasuke extinguishes the fires and crosses his arms, thinking. If he's going to go hunting down his brother, he'll need more than himself. Sasuke isn't proud enough to believe that he can find or take down his brother without backup.
(It stings, a little, knowing that even with all his hard work Sasuke is still in his brother's shadow. Sasuke has always been in his brother's shadow, since birth and till now. And as far as he knows, that might never change.)
But who is he supposed to ask? Not the Sound 4; ever since Sasuke joined the Village of Sound and got strong enough to beat them they'd been irritated at him ever since. Not any of Orochimaru's other guards, either; they were much too devoted to their ruler and they'd never quite forgiven Sasuke after he as a thirteen year old had beaten them all in a training exercise.
Hm. This was proving to be harder than he thought.
Absently, Sasuke tucks a lock of hair behind his ear and exits the burning lab. Well, even if he didn't have a solution at the moment, he could at least find some satisfaction in dismantling Orochimaru's base. That was a viable option.
His first team had been in his genin days, with Naruto and Sakura and Kakashi. Sometimes Sasuke lies awake thinking of them and wonders whether they truly worked well together.
Naruto didn't like him. Sasuke never knew how to feel about Naruto, either. Sakura was intelligent but somehow managed to cross several boundaries at once, which always left him uneasy and wanting to flee into a forest. Kakashi....
Sasuke hates thinking about Kakashi. He hates remembering how he'd believed in Kakashi, that finally there might be someone who could protect him and who he could lean on. Most of all he hates remembering the disappointment in Kakashi's eyes, the wire digging into his skin, hates remembering being defeated by the Sound 4 and touching the curse mark on his shoulder and realizing that now he would never go home again.
(Maybe there's something about Kakashi which makes Sasuke feel like a child again, words and silent disappointment digging beneath his ribs to stab into his lungs and twist. Maybe that's why Sasuke hates it and by extension hates him.)
His second team... well, Sasuke supposes that this might count as chuunin days if he stuck around in Konoha. As it stands, these are his missing-nin days. His second team is composed of Uzumaki Karin, Hoozuki Suigetsu, and Sakaguchi Juugo.
Karin is the former leader of Orochimaru's prison, trying to delegate everyone (and unofficially most of the village, too). She's intelligent and a healer and a talented sensor. Sasuke knows that she's perfectly capable and her abilities are exactly what their team would need, even if she doesn't have combat skill. But there's so many people with expertise in fighting that Sasuke thinks having a fourth would be rather redundant.
Hoozuki Suigetsu was a prisoner, experimented on by Kabuto and Orochimaru for their sick, twisted desires. He possessed the ability to turn himself and parts of himself into water; a rather versatile skill. Sasuke has fought him once or twice in the pits - it blurred together after a while - and has seen him fighting, too. He's a prime offensive and stealth option.
Sakaguchi Juugo is someone Sasuke has seen around, before. Once it was when he was calm and talking to a few robins, smile lighting his face with warmth. The second time was when he was raging and contained in a glass cage and Kabuto was writing on his notepad, ignoring the fact that Sasuke was restrained and trying not to scream from the odd tincture of poisons injected straight into his veins behind him. Of the three people he decided on Juugo is the wild card; Sasuke doesn't know how the gentle giant will react, nor does he know how he'll react if Juugo flies into a rage if they do bring him on.
But something compelled him to give it a shot and hey, if Sasuke can deal with his arms being rearranged to fit metal inside to conduct electricity straight through his bones like the world's most oddly shaped lightning rod he can deal with Juugo.
Of course, there are problems.
Suigetsu is the first one he asks, approaching with overall caution. Sasuke has fought him before and, as much as he knows he could electrocute Suigetsu if the other made a move, he'd really rather not do that.
He goes down the line, breaking out the other prisoners and experiments. Most run off immediately, ignoring the subdued guards Sasuke has left behind in a pile. Likewise, Sasuke makes no move to do anything to them and focuses on the floating person watching him through the tank glass.
Am I really doing this?
Orochimaru had always called him mercurial, changing as fast as the skies. One moment sunny, the next cloudy, the next seething with lightning and the next freezing over to split open in torrents of hail. Sasuke prefers to think of it as him being in touch with his emotions, unlike a certain someone who seemed to only have three moods; sadistic fucker, calculating fucker, and disgusting fucker.
He remembers hands on his skin and Sasuke grimaces lightly at the floor, rolling his shoulders to bat off the memory of fingers crawling across his hips and waist. Eugh.
Focus.
Floating before him is Suigetsu, violet eyes half lidded as he stares down at Sasuke. Wordlessly, Sasuke places a hand on the glass and channels chakra through his fingertips, down the metal of his nails (he got why having nails ripped out was a torture mechanism now, that shit hurt) and through a single point in the glass. It splits and falls apart, shards collapsing over themselves.
Ah, the beauty of exploiting flaws in structural integrity.
Suigetsu drops out immediately once he's freed, bare feet landing with a wet sound on the floor. Water flows out. Sasuke ignores how it pools around his bare ankles. Sasuke eyes him for a second, noting the broad muscles and sharp teeth with an analytical eye. "If you're okay with it, I'd like you to join my team," he says bluntly, leaving out the fact that his team is for now just, well, him. "I have to go kill my brother and he is, regrettably, strong."
There's no response. Sasuke shrugs it off mentally and turns on his heel, intending to leave when -
A single finger presses to the side of his temple. Sasuke's first reaction is to grab the stray hand, twist, break bones under the pressure of his muscles, but he remembers water bullets with the power of an explosive tag packed into a few cubic centimeters of compressed chakra - a force that at this range would easily kill him - and suppresses it. Suigetsu's second arm drapes lazily over his shoulder, easily encompassing his chest.
Really, Sasuke wouldn't mind this as much if Suigetsu weren't dripping with water and also completely naked. That just made this nerve wracking and awkward, a horrifying combination.
"I'm not going to just follow you because you rescued me," Suigetsu exhales straight into his ear. "Every one of us wanted to kill Orochimaru. You just happened to get there first. His favourite, right?"
Pale fingers tighten on the fabric of his yukata. Sasuke just hopes it doesn't get ripped. "You got to stay by his side, while the rest of us were confined. So, you just had more chances."
Fair enough.
Sasuke tilts his head slightly and looks down at the water pooling on the floor. They're both standing in it. Because of the metal in his feet, he could electrocute Suigetsu right now; as a lightning user, his body was more accustomed to receiving lightning chakra and he wouldn't be nearly as hurt.
He doesn't.
Instead, he says, "You want to obtain one of the Seven Swords of the Mist, am I correct? My brother is with the Akatsuki. His partner is Hoshigaki Kisame, who has the Samehada. If I'm going to be hunting him down, I'll be running into Kisame as well."
Behind him, he feels the muscles in Suigetsu's torso and arms tense. Sasuke has his attention now.
"It's your choice," he says. "You can go off on your own if you want. Go hunting for the Seven Swords of the Mist. Whatever. Or you can join me and there's a near 100% chance you'll be able to find one. Whether you obtain it or not is up to you, though if we're in a team I could help you with fighting Kisame for it."
"What makes you think I'll need your help?" Suigetsu challenges. There is water sliding down Sasuke's torso. Lovely.
"He's Akatsuki," Sasuke shrugs. "I'd need help fighting them. So would everyone in the Village of Sound. So would the majority of shinobi."
Suigetsu falls into silence. His arm loosens somewhat. Thank god. Sasuke dislikes physical contact on most days, especially when the person initiating is naked, wet, and can shoot bullets from his fingers.
"If you do choose not to join me," Sasuke says, filling the silence after leaving it for intact a few beats, "try and get out of here as quickly as possible. I'm burning this entire place to the ground once I get the rest of the prisoners out and I won't be waiting to see if you're still inside. I'll also be burning all the other prisons, hideouts, and labs, too, so try not to go in there. You're welcome to come help if you want."
Pure, untainted silence. Sasuke wonders if Suigetsu will just kill him here and allows chakra to condense in the soles of his feet. There are metal rods in there, too, and a few along his legs so he can kick lightning or something. If he wants he can convert it into electricity and his body will act as a conductor, allowing the current to rush through the copper in his flesh and out onto the metal of his toenails, scarred tissue where some of them didn't heal properly. He could do it before Suigetsu even reacts.
"You're a sly one, Uchiha," Suigetsu says, a sharp grin in the bite of his voice. "Bet you already prepared this spiel before coming, huh."
"Does that mean you're joining?" Sasuke asks dryly.
"Well, with an offer like that, I guess I can't refuse," Suigetsu says. "I'm not helping past getting one of the Seven Swords, though. Once I have one, I am out. Got it?"
"Got it," Sasuke agrees. It's the best he can ask for, anyway. "Now put some clothes on. Here."
"This is too small."
"I'll adjust it later," Sasuke says. "We're getting everyone here out and then I'm going to burn it to ash."
"Sounds like fun," Suigetsu declares. Now that he's actually dressed and not holding a finger to his temple Sasuke can turn around and brush water off his chest. "Then what?"
"You're not the only one I'm going to ask," Sasuke says and spins on his heel, heading out of Suigetsu's containment room towards the other cells. By now he knows the layout of this particular hideout like the back of his hand. "If this goes well, it'll be a full team of four."
He does exactly as he says. Suigetsu splits up with him partway through so they can cover more ground and they reunite outside of the base. Sasuke is holding a bag of materials, whatever he could scrounge up that wasn't dubious looking and all the money he could find. Screw Orochimaru's finances. Suigetsu himself is grinning, water already rising around him. Without hesitation he starts blowing apart the walls, laughing when Sasuke is forced to dodge some falling debris.
"Watch it," Sasuke sighs and lights his hand up with electricity, firing volts through the air. With his other hand he grabs a canteen of water and tosses it over. "Here."
"Damn, you were prepared for this. Exactly how long were you planning this operation, Uchiha?"
Well, he'd figured out he should kill Orochimaru very early on. He'd figured out the team thing a few hours ago, though. "Not very long."
Their next retrieval; Uzumaki Karin. Suigetsu blanches as soon as he sees her.
"No way!" he says. "She's insane! I met her once - worst fifteen minutes of my life!"
"Oh," Karin grimaces. "You're the water boy, I see."
"Karin," Sasuke says, cutting right through their squabbling, "would you like to join our team to go kill my brother and retrieve one of the Seven Swords?"
"Is Orochimaru dead?"
"Very."
"Then I'm in," Karin says. "No way am I staying here."
"Her?" Suigetsu demands, spinning to face Sasuke. "This is a horrible idea. She's unhinged!"
"Oh, you're one to talk!" Karin retorts. "I've heard of you, shark boy! You're a bloodthirsty piece of shit!"
See, Sasuke hadn't expected them to hate each other so violently. Suspicion? Sure. This sort of rage? He really didn't anticipate that.
Just as Suigetsu and Karin are about to come to blows Sasuke splits the air with a small burst of electricity, blue violet sparks flickering up from his nails to pierce the space between them. Suigetsu starts back. Karin freezes in place. Both turn to him.
"Take your anger out on something else," Sasuke says. He's tempted to reproach but that wouldn't fly over well, so he doesn't. "I'm breaking everyone out of here and then burning this place to ash. Both of you are welcome to join me in causing as much destruction as physically possible."
Suigetsu grumbles wordlessly behind him. Karin gives Suigetsu the stink eye. Nevertheless, the former starts to break down walls with bursts of water and the latter rips apart files with pure vehemence. Sasuke grabs as many keys as he can from the incapacitated guards and unlocks door after door, prisoners staring at him with both hope and confusion in their eyes.
"Who are you?" one whispers, not moving from their hunched over position.
Suigetsu snorts where he's smashing a table. "He's Orochimaru's favourite, don't you remember? Killed the old snake before any of us could get to do it."
"I have a name," Sasuke points out. "I'm Uchiha Sasuke."
"U...chiha? But - "
"We are not all dead," Sasuke sighs. He's already three cells down. They haven't moved, still. "You can go, okay? We're in the Land of Sound, so we're neighbours with the Land of Fire and there are a lot of villages close to the border you can go to. If you don't want to go to the Land of Fire there's the Land of Rivers to our northeast and the Land of Wind down south. Or you can just stay in the Land of Sound; there's plenty of minor villages far away from Otogakure."
Impromptu geography lesson over, Sasuke moves on to the rest of the cells. Some of them thank him, some of them ignore him. Some of them try to punch him and as soon as it becomes clear that Sasuke outmatches them they leave. In the end they destroy the entire building, save for what supplies Sasuke and Karin have pulled out, and move on to the next.
"Are we done here?" Suigetsu asks once Otogakure has been basically emptied. "I want out of this dumb village."
"Here? Yes," Sasuke says. "I plan never to go to Otogakure ever again. But we're not leaving the Land of Sound yet."
"Another recruit?" Karin asks.
"Mmhm," Sasuke says. "Down south, there's a hideout hidden in the mountains. I've been there once."
Suigetsu snorts. "Of course he took you out of Oto."
"Yes," Sasuke says. "I hunted down rare venomous snakes and found poisonous plants. And then I had that stuff injected into me. During that lovely time, in the moments I wasn't hallucinating, I met someone."
"Northern hideout," Karin muses. "Hmm... I may have heard of it before, though I don't know much about it."
"Think I fought someone from there before," Suigetsu comments. "Or multiple someones. Doesn't matter. Alright, spill. Who's the unlucky soul we're hunting down?"
"Sakaguchi Juugo," Sasuke says. "Well, assuming he isn't dead, anyway."
And so begins their first, impressively chaotic team mission.
EXTRA SCENES:
Scene 1.0: Sewing
"How," Sasuke starts, "am I the only person who knows how to sew."
"It's not like anyone ever taught it to me!" Suigetsu protests.
"No one taught me either," Sasuke retorts. "What did you do when your clothing ripped?"
"I dealt with it, princess. I bet you got new ones every time you tore a single thread."
"No, I picked up a needle," Sasuke says, holding it up and pointing it towards Suigetsu, "and learned to sew."
"Oh don't look at me like that you stuck up - "
"Suigetsu, stop," Karin groans. "You sound like an idiot. Just pick up a needle and try, it's not that hard!"
"Oh I'll show you 'it's not that hard - ' "
"Neither of you," Sasuke interrupts, "are getting remotely close to my sewing supplies. These are the ones without the bloodstains and I don't trust either of you to not break them."
"What? I'm not that bad!" Suigetsu protests, at the same time that Karin says; "Bloodstains??"
Sasuke thinks of stabbing Kabuto in the nose. He thinks of stabbing Kabuto in the eye. He thinks of stabbing not Kabuto but some random Kumo-nin in the ear. He thinks of stabbing Kabuto in the thumb.
"Would you like a practical demonstration?"
"Nope I'm good."
Scene 1.1: Gossip
It's another night for Sasuke and his partially formed team when the news of Orochimaru's death finally starts to spread.
Through the Land of Sound first; the words brought through the breeze by the escaped prisoners and captives. And from the Land of Sound to the Land of Waves, traveling with the flowing streams and languid brooks. From the Land of Waves it makes its way through into the ocean, over to the Land of Lightning and the Land of Fire and gossip travels faster than the winds.
Without its leader, Otogakure has begun to collapse. In the little village, standing proud over the plains, all three of them sit next to a pond and listen to the people talking.
"There's infighting," one is saying.
"There aren't enough people," another says.
"Can we even protect against Sound-nin if they come here?"
"They won't, right? We're too far away."
"At least we don't have to deal with Orochimaru anymore."
"You and me both, bud," Suigetsu mutters under his breath, emerging half formed from the pond and stretching out. "Told you we should have just killed them."
"We're not killing people," Sasuke sighs for what feels like the fiftieth time. "You can't solve all problems with murder."
"Fucking Leaf," Suigetsu grumbles. "Too goddamn soft."
"Maybe he has a heart, unlike you."
"Oh you're one to talk, you heartless - "
Sasuke promptly makes the executive decision to ignore them both.