Ch 162

I didn't feel much, standing here. 

The walls of Orochimaru's old lair were cracked and crumbling, slick with moss and mildew. A thin layer of dust coated the tables, the jars, and the medical equipment. 

Time had tried to erase what had happened here, and failed. Once, I thought this place would make me sick. Thought the memories would claw their way up my throat until I choked on them. 

But now? 

It just felt dead. 

Not dangerous. Not painful. Just... lifeless. 

Like being inside a corpse. 

I moved slowly through the halls, my footsteps making no sound. There was something eerie about it, not ghostly, not supernatural, just the absence of life. Of purpose. 

These walls had seen horrors, I knew that. But now they were just hollow bones. I paused near what used to be one of the examination rooms. Blood once stained that table. Screams once lived in the corners. 

I remembered those nights. But they didn't haunt me now. Not like they used to. Pain didn't echo the same way after you'd survived worse. After you'd watched someone walk away from you with death in their eyes. 

I shook my head, setting my mind straight as I completed my task. I gathered what I came for: scrolls, old seals, a few salvaged tools. A ragged cloak that didn't smell like blood. Some leftover medical supplies. 

I didn't need much, just enough to keep moving, to keep searching. The money Itachi gave me was almost gone now, tucked away in a side pocket of my pack. 

I used to spend it on kunai, travel permits, and clean clothes. But I didn't need those things anymore. I didn't need to blend in. I didn't need to hide. 

I wasn't running. 

I was hunting. 

Kabuto was out there. 

Somewhere in the filth, in the madness. By now, he'd be fully gone, lost in whatever spiral he'd carved out for himself. I doubted the man he used to be even remembers his own name. 

But I had to find him. Either for answers about the reincarnation jutsu... or to rip them from his hands. 

I wasn't naive. I knew who else might be circling the same trail. People I'd buried in the past, people I had no desire to see. If I crossed paths with them... I didn't know if I'd run or burn everything down. 

But I'd find Kabuto first. 

And if he didn't give me what I needed? Then I'd take it. Even if it meant walking through hell again. 

Because this time, I wasn't saving myself. I was trying to bring someone back. 

As I left the lair, my fingers brushed along the wall beside me. I didn't really know why I did it. There was no ceremony to it, no grand farewell. Just the feel of cracked stone under my hand, cold, familiar in a way that made my chest ache. 

Maybe it was a goodbye. 

Not to the place, exactly, but to the part of me that had once lived in it. 

I was a flower that grew up in darkness. Twisted toward whatever light I could find, even if it burned. Even if it lied. 

I'd found my roots in rot, in ruin, but I still bloomed. 

I was still alive. 

This place had carved itself into me, left scars. But even scars are a kind of story, and this one was mine. Ugly. But true. 

When I stepped out into the trees, I didn't look back. Hours passed before I reached the next village, not nearby, but far enough that no one would know who I was, or where I'd come from. It wasn't big. But it wasn't small either. 

The streets were narrow but busy. Merchants shouted over each other from wooden stalls, selling grilled fish, cheap weapons, herbs, maps. 

I kept my hood low and my steps steady, ears open for anything. I wasn't here to rest. I was here to listen. 

Whispers always traveled faster in places like this. Somewhere in all the noise, someone would know something. 

Itachi, you won't get away this time. 

A/n Definitely on the shorter side but I do owe you guys a chapter. I will continue to write but school is kicking my butt, even if you don't get a chapter too soon, know that i am writing. Enjoy~