Ch 149

Orochimaru lay upright in the dimly lit chamber, his pale body propped against a mountain of cushions, motionless save for the faint rise and fall of his chest. 

The damp, musty air of the underground lair clung to the walls like old skin. Shadows slithered in the corners, cast by flickering candlelight. 

His serpentine eyes stared ahead, unblinking, lost in a fog of ambition. In his mind, the image of Sasuke burned bright: A vessel of infinite potential, a body strong enough to contain his ever-decaying soul. 

A slow, sickly grin curled at the corners of his cracked lips. Soon, he thought. The boy was nearing the perfect moment: ripe, powerful, yet still within reach of control. 

Orochimaru's tongue slid across his lips in anticipation. But the moment was broken. His body convulsed suddenly. 

Orochimaru doubled forward, a wet, gurgling cough erupting from his throat. Blood splattered across the silken sheets and down his chin in thick, dark ropes. 

He clutched his stomach with one hand and covered his mouth with the other, but the spasms only grew worse. 

For a long moment, he was reduced to a trembling heap, the weight of his deteriorating body catching up to the vastness of his will. 

And then he froze. Something... was off. His yellow eyes narrowed. A pulse of chakra, sharply precise, came hurtling through the lair intentionally. 

Before Orochimaru could react, a deafening crack split the air, and a spear of lightning tore through the door in a flash of searing blue. 

Instinct took over. He raised his arms to defend himself, chakra surging to the surface. But it wasn't enough. 

The spear struck with blinding force, piercing both his forearms and slamming them together, pinning them in place. 

Orochimaru hissed, more in annoyance than pain, baring his fangs. Blood dripped steadily from his ruined arms as he stared at the weapon embedded in his flesh. His body trembled, not from weakness, but from a rising fury. 

"Who dares–" he began, but the words were cut short. The door, already fractured from the attack, was sliced into ribbons, clean cuts shearing through wood and steel alike. 

Shards fluttered to the ground, leaving a mess. A figure stepped through the wreckage, calmly purposeful, shadowed by the dying light behind him. Uchiha Sasuke. 

There was no hesitation in his steps, no uncertainty in his gaze. The boy's Sharingan glowed red, burning like coals beneath his brow. 

Orochimaru stared at him, pinned and bleeding, but not surprised. A smile tugged at his lips once more, even as blood pooled at his elbows. 

"Of course it's you," he started softly, voice raspy but firm. "I knew you'd come for me." 

Sasuke didn't hesitate. His voice was cold, resolute. "There's nothing more you can teach me, Orochimaru." 

As the cursed mark pulsed to life, spreading across his face and down his body like dark fire, he stepped forward. 

"Now you'll see I can be heartless. Even to you." Orochimaru let out a rasping wheeze, a mix of pain and rage. 

His decaying body could barely support him, and his arms, now impaled and pinned by a spear of crackling lightning, left him immobilized. 

The Chidori glowed fiercely, embedding deeper into the stone wall behind him. Sasuke's eyes glinted with power. 

"Orochimaru, I've surpassed you. I'm stronger now. So why would I hand my body over to someone weaker?" 

Orochimaru trembled, his snake-like eyes narrowing. "Bold words from a nursling Uchiha." 

Sasuke smirked, his voice laced with quiet mockery. "Yes. A nursling. The only kind of Uchiha you were ever capable of handling." 

He took another step, his tone turning sharp and precise. "You were there in the Forest of death during the Chunin exams to see if this 'nursling' showed promise, right?" 

He shook his head slowly, as if disappointed. "So you thought you'd lay claim to me. You thought you could bind me to you with this curse mark." 

The smirk faded. Sasuke's eyes darkened with focus. "I'm an Avenger. I want revenge. I wanted it so badly, I was willing to give up my body to get it. What you wanted was the Sharingan, right? But how to get it?" 

Orochimaru's fury was growing, his pride visibly breaking under Sasuke's words. But Sasuke remained composed. 

"Itachi was out of the question, so you came after Ishi, then me, the baby of the clan. Isn't that so? And they say you're the genius out of the legendary Sanin. But it turns out you're just another run-of-the-mill ninja and you know it. You're not even in the same league as the Uchiha. In fact, next to the Uchiha, genius like yours looks pretty ordinary." 

Sasuke's eyes narrowed mockingly, "You tried it with Ishi first, didn't you?" His tone dipped colder, more calculated. "She was barely older than me, but she wasn't stupid, regardless of everything else." 

Orochimaru chuckled quietly, blood bubbling at the edge of his lips. "Ah... Ishi." His voice slithered with something close to nostalgia. "She was clever. Sharp. Inquisitive. Always asking questions no one else dared to. In another life, she might've been my finest apprentice. So much potential... so much hunger for knowledge." 

He lifted his head slightly, eyes gleaming despite the pain. "In that way, she reminded me of myself." But then his tone soured, twisting into disdain. 

"Such a shame. A half-blood Uchiha, tainted lineage diluted by sentimentality. She had the eyes, but not the heart to use them." 

Despite the bitterness, Orochimaru had never truly left Ishi to her own devices, and never will. The world was cruel. Nowhere was safe. 

"Ishi is a child with empathy. She can't escape her kind nature, no matter how much she tries. She doesn't chase power for its own sake, she only wants survival." 

Sasuke frowned lightly. "What little she has." 

Orochimaru shook his head. Sasuke's lack of understanding when it came to Ishi didn't surprise him. No, it was something he mocked him for. 

"Well, if you had nothing to strive for, would you be in this position? Your hatred for Itachi is all that's consuming you. Ishi is an empty husk, grasping for a reason to keep moving. Yet she can't find one." 

Sasuke glared. "She's weak." 

Orochimaru smirked. "You are weaker. She can't escape her learned helplessness... while you choose to suffer from it." 

Sasuke chuckled for a moment, all these talks and it always comes down to Ishi. Why is everything about her? No matter, she wasn't here. 

And he wasn't done with his words, Sasuke was going to let out every thought he ever had about Orochimaru, "The way you covet the power of the Uchiha. The way you fill yourself up with medicines and go leaping from body to body. It's disgusting. As an Uchiha, all I see when I look at you is a miserable wretch." 

The next line was the finishing blow, "And on top of that, I don't like your style." 

Sasuke made the lightning wider to hurt him, making Orochimaru grunt in pain, "What do you hope to accomplish? Scurrying from one hideout to the next. Conducting your pathetic experiments. Using up peoples lives one after the other. Trying to unlock the mysteries of nature. You toy with peoples lives for the sake of this vain and ridiculous cause of yours." 

Sasuke sneered at Orochimaru, "You disgust me." And then Sasuke goes for the kill. 

A/n Sorry for the wait, I do and don't know how I want to write the next few chapters. I could either make it happy, sad, hurtful or... you get it. But it will get better, don't worry! Enjoy~