"Of course." I'm making sure Sasuke and I stay far out of his way. It's not hard to guess who will be waiting to fight Orochimaru. Who can challenge a Sannin except for another Sannin? "Wait a moment. Where's... No. That can't be right."
...
Sasuke isn't where I expected him to be, he's not on Orochimaru's other side. He's still standing in the same spot that we were attacked in, but just a half step to the right. But he's not moving. His masked head is pointed uncomprehendingly at the ground, as if he can't – won't – believe something. I don't need to look at the ground to know what it is he's starring at.
It's his arm.
Sasuke's arm as been severed at the shoulder, no doubt by Asuma's knives. All he has left is a bleeding stump.
"Now you see why I'm so furious." Orochimaru says in a voice that only promises pain and suffering. "They hurt my next body, and they wanted to hurt my child. I will not stand for such insolence!"
Orochimaru... saved me? He picked me over his precious next body?
"You will use whatever means necessary to survive. Nothing is off limits. Use your full strength, your full power, to return to me. Everything else comes second." Orochimaru spares the stock still Sasuke a glace. "Even him."
He leaps away from me to go try and kill those who attacked us.
"Hold on!" I yell to Sasuke as I force the realization that Orochimaru actually cares about me out of my head. "Just hang in there!"
A green blur, much slower and smaller than the one before, bursts out of the treeline and is hauling ass towards the stunned Sasuke.
"NO!" I snarl out with scalding fury and slam into Lee. "I will not let you hurt him more!"
"Midori-chan, I am so sorr-"
I don't wait for him to finish. I lift up my leg and using every bit of my strength possible I aim a kick at his knee.
CRACK
"ARGH!" Lee crumples to the ground in agony with his leg bent backwards. I broke his knee. He won't be moving anytime soon.
"I'm almost there!" I shout to Sasuke who has finally torn his gaze away from his severed limb to stare at me blankly.
"Lee!" Tenten shouts from off to my left as she hurls multiple kunai at me. "You bitch!"
I don't waste time trying to dodge. Several of them miss, but a handful stab into me. I completely ignore it, Sasuke needs me. Something as simple as having kunai in me won't even slow me down.
Neji leaps between me and Sasuke, intent on avenging his downed teammate while preventing me from getting to Sasuke.
Kiba, Shino and Hinata are quickly making their way towards the frozen Sasuke. At this rate they'll reach him before I do. If that happens he's dead.
Choji and Ino are hanging back from the other two teams, obviously playing a supporting role since they're down a member. Choji looks pissed while Ino is a scared pale. She's starring at me and Sasuke in horror.
"I will not lose him!" I roar at the Konoha gennin, I scream at my friends who don't know what they're doing.
All actions from the Konoha shinobi halt in the next moment. It isn't because of my words, it isn't because of the serious killing intent I'm pumping out, it isn't because Orochimaru showed back up triumphant over the others. No, they all stop because they heard a familiar noise.
It's a sickening noise, one that is forever seared into their minds. It's the sound of flesh tearing, but this is more specific than that. This is the sound of a heart being pushed out of someone's back. It's a noise that is unique to their lost friend Alvarcus.
SQUELCH
I pushed out every Jiongu monster I could spare. I've kept my fire heart to myself for two reasons. One, it's the element I'm the best with and two, I may need to cauterize Sasuke's arm.
I lash out with dozens of chakra strings, arcing them well over the heads of everyone present and they all latch onto Sasuke himself and his severed arm. With a not so soft yank I pull him through the air to me.
"It's okay." I catch him and quickly lay him down on the ground. "I got ya. Don't worry."
"Al... Alvarcus?" Sasuke whispers out in disbelief. "My arm is... is it gone?"
"Did he say... did he say Alvarcus?" Someone says but I don't care enough to figure out who did it.
"Jiongu!" I roar to my monsters. "I need to save him. No one gets within ten meters of me. If they do put them down."
My four monster leap into action, each and every one of them standing at exactly ten meters away from me. They're daring the Konoha shinobi to come closer. They're looking forward to showing the fool what happens if they do.
"Hang in there Sasuke. We don't know if it's gone forever yet. Just hold on." What can I do? I'm no medic nin. I can't do a damn thing to help him. At best I can burn the wound closed so he stops losing blood and then get some spiders to wrap it with medical grade silk. I don't think I've ever been this powerless before.
"Sasuke? He said Sasuke?" Another voice says in confusion.
~Host, I have an idea. It's-
"Will it work?" I demand."I don't care what it is. Will it work?"
~It should.~
"Do it." I order.
The Jiongu worms it's way out of the scar on my neck and slowly reaches towards Sasuke's severed limb. Once it grabs it, the Jiongu pulls the limb back to Sasuke. It's holding it next to where it was cut off from. Then the Jiongu digs into both the flesh of the severed limb and the stump.
"AHH!" Sasuke screams in pain as the Jiongu sews Sasuke's arm back on.
It's worming through the flesh, bobbing up and down as it goes about the tedious task of reattaching the arm. Over and over and over again it weaves the two parts back into one whole all while Sasuke is screaming bloody murder and thrashing about like an animal going through death throws. Finally after what feels like days of waiting the black threads tighten one last time and Sasuke's arm spasms back to life.
"That..." Sasuke huffs out between huge gulping breaths. "That was hell."
He stands up onto his feet and experimentally moves his arm around. His fingers curl and extend, he's testing every limit he can.
~He should not do anything to strenuous with his arm for at least a week. After that he should be back at 100%.~
"Sasuke you good?" I ask him. "Everything feel right? I don't know exactly what the Jiongu did but it says to take it easy for a week."
"I'm okay." His voice floods with relief. "I'm okay. I thought it was gone forever. The pain was unbelievable. Is that what it always feels like?"
"Ask me again later once we're safe. We've got to get out of here." I urge him. "Orochimaru wants us to get back to Sound." Or at the very least me. Still currently processing that.
"We're not letting that fucking happen!" Kiba shouts at us. "You fucking assholes! This whole time!"
"You didn't tell us?" Tenten yells. "We were together for hours on end! Hours! We were ready to kill you just now! We almost did!"
"You couldn't kill us if you tried your hardest and you had a decade to prepare." I viciously say. I need to make a rift between me and the Konoha shinobi. I need to drive a wedge between us so that they never try to seek me out again.
"Wait a minute." Hinata turns towards the cowering Ino. "Ino did you know? You said you got into his head."
"I... uh..." Ino stutters out floundering for an excuse.
"You did know!?" Hinata shouts at her. "Why didn't you tell any of us? We can help them! We can bring them back!"
"Because we don't want to go back." I hiss out. "You want to know why she didn't say anything? It isn't out of some misguided hope that she can bring us back herself."
"Alvarcus-" Ino starts to say but I cut her off.
"You all think you're shinobi?" I condescendingly say to my friends with a sneer hidden behind my mask. "You're all still pampered children. The world is a fucked up place, it's a world where people die by the dozens each day and no one bats an eye. It's a place where the weak are the playthings of the strong. I refuse to be someone's toy, someone's plaything. I will be the one dictating who does what, I will be the one to say who goes where, I will be the one with the power."
"You're wrong!" Neji shouts at me. I must have touched a nerve is the stoic Hyuuga himself is shouting. "Power and strength are not the be all and end all of our world. There's more to it than that."
"What about us?" Choji asks. "Don't we mean anything to you? You ran out on all of us. You left us all behind without a second thought."
...
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