Naruto: The Unwoven Threads of Fate

"We must hurry." Orochimaru says as he quickens his pace.

"Don't need to tell me that." Sasuke scoffs out as he easily matches the Sannin's pace. "You sure that just you and I will be enough for this?"

Orochimaru and Sasuke are sprinting across the surface of the ocean at crazy speeds. They're rapidly closing in on where Alvarcus is battling forty three shinobi on his own.

"Alvarcus, you and I stand at the pinnacle of Oto. Do you really think that anyone else would be able to stand next to one of us in combat?" Orochimaru distractedly says as the island finally comes into view. "Let alone all three of us at once? If anything we are too much, Alvarcus could achieve victory by himself."

"Then why are we speeding up?" Sasuke asks yet doesn't slow down his pace.

Orochimaru simply points at the island.

"Hn." Sasuke says with crimson eyes, they're far superior than Orochimaru's but he wasn't truly looking before. "That's why. Well it is his style, maybe it's him? I've seen him do something similar before."

"Yes, the Dance of the Dragons. I helped him master that jutsu." Orochimaru correctly assumes what Sasuke is referring to. "But this is ten elemental dragons acting independently."

True to the Sannin's words over the island ten elemental dragons are waging war against something.

The two earth dragons are diving beneath the ground and causing great irreparable rents in their wake. They dive deep, spending a long five seconds under the surface before jumping back topside. But there's something off about their snouts and jaws, they're stained darker than the rest of the dragons.

The two water dragons are gracefully circling the island in the ocean and every once in awhile they spring into action and dive down onto something, most likely their prey. Rarely one of them will fire a beam of water subjected to such intense pressure it looks like a laser, as if gravity has no effect on it.

The two fire dragons are tightly circling a specific spot on the island, without his Sharingan on Sasuke would assume it was a tornado of flames instead of two dragons. They seem to be protecting something of great value and efficiently deal with whatever could be crazy enough to get in their way by turning it to ash in moments.

The two lightning dragons are shooting out lightning bolts from their humongous jaws as they fly high above the island, utterly obliterating whatever or whoever they hit. Over and over they send out their attack, never faltering, never weakening. They rain lightning down on the island with impunity. Whoever said lightning never strikes the same spot twice wasn't using enough lightning.

Lastly the two wind dragons are wreaking havoc on the island, they're streaking through the air just above the ground and shredding anything they touch. Foliage is ripped from the ground and reduced to mulch, large rocks become gravel and debris become dust. Everything hurled by the violent wind is cut down to the smallest imaginable pieces. Every few seconds a dark reddish plume of something gets launched into the air.

"You don't think it's him?" Sasuke asks Orochimaru as both of them wordlessly up the speed yet again. "I don't really know anyone else stupid enough to try that, plus the dragons seem to be loosely acting in pairs. He's just one person, why would there be-"

"The Jiongu." Orochimaru cuts off Sasuke. "Alvarcus and his four monsters makes five. Plus how on earth would he be able to accurately command them from such a distance? Elemental Dragons are not like clones, they require direction at all times. They can't be given the simplest of commands, without direction they simply are a much more destructive version of the elemental bullets."

"Hn." Sasuke reevaluates the situation. "It would make sense. Two dragons for each of them. Shit. With him separate from the Jiongu they could even play type advantage against him. Who could send out so many shinobi that can pull this off?"

"Only the Big Five." Orochimaru grimly says. "I severely doubt any other village has the shinobi to pull this off. There are two shinobi of each element capable of directing dragons with precision of Suna's puppet masters? This has to be a specifically crafted unit with decades of experience working together."

"Guesses as to who?" Sasuke asks.

"For some reason my gut says Iwa." Orochimaru gets distracted as he run through each major village and assesses them. Who could field such a team? Or more accurately who would? "They seem the most likely. It could be a joint operation from Suna and Konoha but the fluidity that each dragon works around the others outstands me, this team obviously knows each other inside and out. Hence, Iwa. It's just like the Tsuchikage to try something insane."

"Insane huh?" Sasuke turns off the Sharingan, it's best to conserve chakra for now. "Doesn't that sound familiar."

~Alvarcus… this is… this is madness!~

"No." I grunt out as I squeeze my eyes shut tighter. "This is the finesse of wielding chakra strings for years, constantly using all the elements at the same time, the insane kind of mind that would attempt something so devastating and outright crazy, and the amazing capabilities of Sage Mode all stacked together."

Lightning flashes and thunder booms as a leaping shinobi is shot out of the air. The jagged bolt of electricity went straight through his heart leaving behind a gaping charred black hole.

~How do you even do this!?~

"With a lot of concentration and fucking damn good multitasking skills." I grunt out again as I steer a wind dragon towards a trio of fleeing shinobi. They manage to dodge to the right, avoiding the raging dragon, and then get smashed to a paste from below by an earth dragon. "And freakishly quick chakra recovery. And enhanced chakra from Sage Mode makes it much easier to maintain the dragons so keep that coming. Plus the frankly ridiculous sensing range that being a Sage gave me."

One of the twin fire dragons branches away from circling around me and swallow a shinobi attempting a suicide run at me whole. There's not even ash left over, just a few heat warped bits of metal. The fire dragon quickly joins its brother at my side, swirling protectively around me once more.

~Alvarcus. You're by far my favorite host. Never forget that.~

"I know." I smirk to myself. "Oh watch this one! It's going to be cool!"

Lightning flashes and thunder booms as both of my lightning dragons shoot bolts at a water dragon. Said electrically charged water dragon barrels its way through five fleeing shinobi and kunoichi. They're shocked into paralysis as they're pulled inside a watery prison and those that survived the shock and blunt trauma will slowly drown to death.

~I'm so proud right now.~

"Fucking hell I knew it would be cool." I twitch as two new signatures get within my range. "Shit. Well this just got awkward."

~That's Sasuke and Orochimaru. Why are they here?~

"Dunno." Both of my earth dragons launch skyward and slam down on the same spot. Then the two wind dragons follow suit. Then the water dragons. Then the lightning. And lastly the fire. Talk about overkill, there were only four shinobi there. They just happened to be the last four and I had to get rid of these dragons somehow. "Karin probably felt the force coming at me and those two decided to back me up. Kinda unnecessary but it's nice that they did."

I stand up from my cross legged position on the ground and twist my back this way and that way. There's no satisfying sound of pops from my spine, the Jiongu is better than that. Unfortunately. I've always liked to hear them.

"Well there's no point in making them run all the way here. Let's meet them halfway." I bend down and grab a suspiciously body sized mass of white webs from the ground and throw it over my shoulder.

~What do you plan on telling them?~

"Fuck if I know."

"Hey guys!" I cheerfully wave at both Sasuke and Orochimaru as I meet them on the beach. "How's things? Sorry about the mess there was a pest problem. I took care of it."

"I don't believe it." Sasuke says in disbelief. "It was you, wasn't it?"

"Hm? What was me?" I heft the suspiciously body size white mass of webs off my shoulder and toss it towards Orochimaru. "I got you a present."

"Really now?" Orochimaru looks down at the helpless kunoichi. "You're such a considerate child. But only one? I was hoping for five at least."

"I got a little carried away?" I awkwardly shrug as I nudge her closer to the Snake Sannin. "Still I got you one, it's better than nothing."

"True, but it isn't like you to spare people." Orochimaru takes his intense yellow eyes off of the bound kunoichi to place them on me instead. "What prompted this change?"

"I tried to figure out who sent them but for some ungodly reason they didn't answer me." I strike a thinking pose, I'm idly tapping a finger against my chin while looking slightly upwards. "Perhaps it was because they were too busy running for their lives? Meh, guess I'll never know. Anyways I figured you'd be able to get it out of her with all of your… how should I put this… Gah! I've got nothing! I figured you could torture it out of her or something."

"It was you!" Sasuke exclaims again as Orochimaru bends down to closer examine his latest test subject. "Those dragons were you!"

"Yep." I casually wave him off. "Seriously though who in their right mind would attack us? I mean its us. They had to know it wouldn't work. Shit, if it was Kusa shinobi the Kusakage and I need to have a chat. This is just ridiculous."

"Don't worry about that. She's from Amegakure. How interesting, it seems an ex co-worker has discovered the base." Orochimaru says as he stands up from examining the trapped kunoichi. Then he turns to Sasuke. "Dispose of her, will you?"

"And how'd you figure that out?" With a roll of his eyes Sasuke effortlessly stabs the kunoichi in the neck to sever her spine. Instant death.

"Her scar." Orochimaru lightly runs a finger across his face, tracing from his left ear down to the right side of his jaw. "I gave it to her for spiting me."

"Oh yeah she mentioned that during battle banter." Ame. The Akatsuki's headquarters. Pain's lair. Did… did he send shinobi after Orochimaru or after the ring that's resting inside me? Aw fuck, like I don't have enough things to worry about the way it is. I'll just shove this one on the back burner for now.

Though if he did send his shinobi after me it would be a first. I mean basically every other time the Akatsuki and I got along just fine with words. Minus that one time Kisame cut my head off and gave me a new name. Seriously fuck that guy. Back on track though, I thought the Akatsuki liked me? Well some of them do.

I know Kakuzu and Hidan both do. Kakuzu likes the mini-me running around and reminding everyone to fear the Jiongu for him. Hidan wants to convert me and that's worrisome because Jashin and I probably wouldn't get along.

Sasori is kinda up in the air but at the very least he finds me interesting. Though that might just be because he wants to find out if he can puppetify me. Is that at word? Whatever. Itachi… well I have no clue. Maybe he likes that I protect Sasuke? Mabitobi can fuck off for all I care.

Hehe, Mabitobi. Gets me every time.

"You know what?" Sasuke's voice pulls me out of my mental ramblings. "I'm not even surprised. Of course it was you. No one else would be that insane."

"Sasuke, it is for the best to simply accept that Alvarcus will always do something no one expects. You would not believe the debrief we just went through." Orochimaru turns his inquisitive yellow gaze onto me. "Still to this day I simply can't logically explain half of the things he has done. How did he survive the Edo Tensi? How did he live through the Jiongu when no one else has? Why did he decide taunting a jinchuuriki was a good idea? How does he pull off these incredible feats of strength? I have no idea and that's what makes him truly dangerous."

"It's just like I said way back in that Chunin Exams." I smirk up at the Sannin. "The mind is the best weapon and my mind is among the best. It's not my fault you guys can't figure out how I think."

"I bet you thought: What kind of idiots are planning to attack the base? Followed up by: What's the coolest way to beat these morons? And there was probably a couple times you thought about how badass you were as you cut them down." Sasuke flatly says to me.

"Well… shit." I sheepishly rub the back of my head. "Maybe you do know how I think."

The Base, Hours Later, Alvarcus' Room

"-and that's everything that happened with Yugito." I wrap up my retelling of the story to Sasuke. This time it went much faster, Sasuke interrupts a lot less than Orochimaru.

"So let me get this straight." He levely says to me. "You fought a jinchuuriki."

"Yep." I easily confirm. I mean I did outline literally everything that happened in our fight, I have no idea why he's asking this again. "It was a good time. Well I had a good time."

"Not to mention you pulled off killing the Sound Three without getting caught." I've got to give the guy credit, there's not even a waiver in his voice despite the ludicrous story he just heard.

"You betcha." I graciously dip my head as if I'm acknowledging him praising me. Even though he's not. Whatever, he's just a big party pooper. I'm still morbidly proud of that. I mean my seal grenade worked perfectly! Minus them exploding all over me. That was kinda gross. "Wanted to start more actively tearing down Orochimaru's supports. What better place to start than his elite bodyguards?"

"And you somehow got away with a hot tub of all things?" His eyebrow twitches this time.

"Oh yeah. Tell me this isn't nice. Go on. Do it." That's right everyone, we're making liberal use of the hot tub I stole. "Seriously this is like the best thing ever for after training. The jets really massage the muscles and you can't help but relax. The water is the perfect temperature to sink into. It's a shame there's no bubbles, it's better with bubbles."

"You do know that if anyone saw us both in here we'd never live it down, right? It wouldn't matter that we're wearing swimsuits the rumors would be atrocious." He pauses for a moment. He's considering something. "Bubbles?"

"Oh yeah. Last time I got my hands on vanilla scented bubbles." Ah, that really made the hot tub so much better. It gave me something to play with and it smelled great. "It. Was. Amazing."

"How'd you get the water hooked up?" He curiously asks while running a hand through the raging waters.

"Seals." I bluntly answer. "I could go more indepth but it'd go right over your head."

"Seals it is." He concisely agrees with me.

"So I can't help but notice that you're not… well freaking out seems a bit strong but you're not freaking out at all. I mean I just told you I fought a jinchuuriki of all things and murdered the Sound Three in cold blood and you saw me utterly destroy forty three people barely two hours ago and you're just… accepting it?"

"Believe me, it could have been so much worse." I slowly slinks down further into the warm water of the hot tub but even the inviting water can't suppress his shudder. "So much worse."

"Do tell." I lean forwards slightly. He's intrigued me, how could it possibly be worse? Minus being whisked away to the Nest, being put on trial for murder which wasn't really a trial it was more of a sentencing hearing and then proceeding to have Sage Mode forced down my throat.

Shit should I tell him about that stuff? I mean it's kinda relevant but it could hurt our dynamic. I'm a Sage now. If I was a juggernaut before now I'm a fucking… whatever the hell beats a juggernaut. I'm one of those. Really gotta figure that out. But the gap between our strengths just went from just out of reach to kilometers wide.

"It's simple really." He pins me in an onyx stare with a coy smirk dancing on his lips. "You never learned how to set yourself on fire from Yugito."

"AW FUCK!" I shout as I slap the water, sending it flying in all directions. "How the hell did I forget to ask her about that? God DAMMIT! I was so looking forward to that! I would have had so much fun with it!"

"I know. That's why I'm glad it didn't happen." Smug bastard.

"Sasuke that's cruel." I wilt and sink further down into the water. "It would have been just a little fire. Nothing to be worried about."

"Just a little fire he says." Sasuke scoffs out. "I still have nightmares about you burning down my house. I don't even have a house anymore!"

"You mean from that D-rank way back when?" I rack my memories. "The exploding house?"

"Yes. They had to call in ANBU." He groans out. "ANBU."

"Not my fault there were explosive chemicals." I shrug in a what can you do about it manner. "I'm completely innocent."

"Keep telling yourself that. I was there, I know the truth."

"Dick."

"Ass."

The Next Morning, Orochimaru's Office

"Isn't this a surprise." Orochimaru moves his project plans off to the side of his desk. "It's rare that you seek me out on your own. What do you need Sasuke?"

"I desire more training." Sasuke respectfully demands. He's not crazy, no one truly demands something from Orochimaru but he refuses to be weak by asking.

"Interesting." Orochimaru's eyes narrow in suspicion. "And what, pray tell, brought on this desire? I'm already devoting a significant portion of my time to your training and yet here you are demanding more from me."

"Alvarcus." Sasuke's hands ball into twin fists.

"Alvarcus…" Orochimaru repeats while dragging out his child's name and looking at Sasuke expectantly. He wants Sasuke to elaborate.

"I'm willing to see his back." Sasuke says to Orochimaru as his fists clench tighter. "If it's him who is better than me I can accept that. He's the one person I can always trust, the one person I can always depend on. He's the one person who will drop whatever he's doing to help me. But after seeing what he did yesterday, well, he's so far in front of me that I can't even see his back anymore. I refuse to allow that to happen."

"Why?" Orochimaru innocently asks yet there's something sinister in his eyes. He likes this motivation from Sasuke, after all it is so much easier to train a willing test subject - ahem, student. But he's happy, not for Sasuke, but for Alvarcus. For Sasuke of all people to acknowledge that his child is impossibly far ahead of the Uchiha warms his heart. Any father would be proud of his child's accomplishments, doubly so when someone else notices them.

"I will not be useless." Sasuke's resolve doubles. "He's so far ahead of me that I won't even be able to help him when he needs someone to lean on. I absolutely refuse to allow that to happen. I never want to see the day when he reaches out to me and I have to tell him I can't because I'm too weak."

"Okay." Orochimaru dips his head in acceptance. "I'll slot out some more time for you."

"Thank you Orochimaru-sama." Sasuke bows down to the Snake Sannin.

"You know Sasuke, you already have the tools to rapidly close the gap." Orochimaru taps one finger on his shoulder in the exact spot that Sasuke's curse seal is. "You merely have to use them. Stage Two is not something to be afraid of, it's something to embrace with open arms."

Sasuke pauses for a moment as he struggles internally. He's weighing the pros and cons of what Orochimaru is alluding to. He knows what the curse seal does to him, how it warps how he thinks in the heat of the moment. But he also knows how much power comes with it.

Right now he needs power. Not just to stand next to his best friend again but for his own ambition, his life goal. To defeat Itachi.

"Add it to the list of things I need to work on." Sasuke swirls around and leaves the office.

"Of course Sasuke, we will work extensively on it." Orochimaru calls after him while internally smiling to himself.

"I really must thank you, Alvarcus." Orochimaru can't suppress his internal smile anymore, a wicked grin fully blossoms on his snakelike visage. "It's because of you that I get to taste victory."