章 14: Chapter 13
(A/N: Here it is, a whopping 3k+ words for this major chapter.)
~
Yuro found himself enveloped in an eerie, surreal space. The surroundings were shrouded in darkness. The only way he was able to see was by an otherworldly light that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. He stood at the center of this void all the while standing on a seemingly infinitely expanse of writhing flesh.
The place looked much more creepy than he had thought. Orochimaru's Living Corpse Reincarnation Techniques mental space.
Suddenly, some flesh rose in front of him to reveal the face of Orochimaru, his snake-like eyes gleaming with malicious curiosity.
"Yuro-kun," Orochimaru hissed, a smirk playing on his lips. "Why have you thrown yourself into this situation?"
Yuro met Orochimaru's gaze and found himself uncaring to explain his thought process while also feeling like the longer this went on the more likely he won't come out of this at all. "Let's just get on with this."
Orochimaru's grin widened, his amusement evident. "How bold of you. I had wondered why you were acting so strangely earlier, yet it did not even cross my mind that you would make such an idiotic decision like trying to force yourself to become my next host. You do realize I can cancel the technique and leave you dead while I move onto Sasuke, don't you? I only brought you here to this space to quench my curiosity about your actions."
Orochimaru kept going on and on. As he spoke, figures began to materialize around them from the ground. They were Orochimaru's previous hosts trapped within this mental space. Yuro didn't know if they were actually dead, or forever trapped on the brink of death since Orochimaru was supposedly taking their body. Did he do something like enslave their soul? Otherwise, why else do they appear here even after their physical bodies were used and discarded?
Yuro watched them absently, waiting for things to progress, unsure of when to begin his part. But then he stopped, his eyes widening in horror as he recognized one of the hosts. She looked achingly familiar, more than the rest.
Orochimaru noticed Yuro's reaction and ceased his monologue. "Ah…I see you've recognized her," he said, his voice for some reason suddenly filled with worry, close to fear for some reason but Yuro couldn't even hear him right now.
The woman before him was his mother. The realization struck Yuro like a physical blow. Why was she here? This can't be her, but someone in close resemblance. But how could it be her? She couldn't be here. And before being able to fake any more reasons to ignore reality, his head exploded in pain, causing him to fall to his knees as his head, even his eyes screamed in agony.
A memory was resurfacing. A memory that he had purposefully but unknowingly buried as it surged back to the surface.
[~3 Years Ago]
Yuro was walking beside Orochimaru in the dark, winding corridors in a deep part of Otogakure. Orochimaru was lecturing him about the Uchiha clan's Sharingan, emphasizing its possible evolution into the mythical Mangekyo Sharingan and the immense power it held.
"The Uchiha Clan's already powerful Kekkei Genkai, the Sharingan, has its true potential lying in its evolution to Mangekyo," Orochimaru said, his voice echoing off the stone walls. "But not only is the Sharingan itself rare to acquire in the Uchiha Clan, but this evolution beyond three-tomoe is in itself extremely rare. And even if someone holds the capacity to acquire this Mangekyou Sharingan, the trigger to its evolution has to happen in a situation where the holder must experience extreme and intimate emotional pain…"
Yuro felt it harder and harder to pay attention as worry and fear once again made themselves known. It was clear why this topic was being brought up. Orochimaru intended to have Yuro's own three-tomoe Sharingan evolve into that of the Mangekyo Sharingan. But that wasn't what worried him the most. It was the implication that Orochimaru had something that could cause the Mangekyo to manifest.
They arrived at a heavy wooden door, and Orochimaru pushed it open to then walk right in. Inside, his worry as to what kind of thing Orochimaru had intensified like crazy. It was his mother. She sat in a chair and when they came in, she looked over, meeting Yuro's eyes. His heart leaped in his chest, but he didn't dare to believe that this was her. This was a fake, it had to be. Someone under transformation. Yuro wanted to believe that she was still at home, living her peaceful life even though her child had suddenly gone missing one night. He hoped to return one day and continue life as normal again and was the only reason he currently kept going through with Orochimaru's torture. But no, she was here.
"Mother!" he cried out, rushing forward.
Despite the rationality he tried to hold, it burst without much resistance. He had wanted to see her again so badly and despite everything, he had to tell himself that he would probably never see her again or return to the life he had. And once he looked into her eyes, he crumbled and turned back into the kid he was. She had stood and embraced him tightly, both of them shedding tears.
"My son," she whispered, her voice filled with relief and sorrow. "I thought I'd never see you again."
Their reunion was short-lived, however. Orochimaru made himself known and stepped between them, his expression devoid of empathy. "To evolve your Sharingan, Yuro, you must experience a profound loss. Kill her."
Yuro's blood ran cold. "No! I won't do it!" How could he kill his own mother?
She took his head into her hands and looked at him with tear-filled eyes, her voice gentle but firm. "It's alright, sweety. If my death can give you the strength to survive in this place, then do it."
Still, Yuro refused, his decision unshakable. There had to be another way, some other way to acquire the Mangekyo. Orochimaru's eyes narrowed with displeasure, though a smirk could still be seen. "If you won't do it, then I'll have to proceed with plan B. Did you know, Yuro-kun, that your mother is a deserter from Konohagakure? Not long after your birth, she left due to her worrying about her and your safety after the Uchiha clan's massacre."
Orochimaru then explained his body-swapping technique, though he did not explain this technique in much detail, just enough to convey that he uses other people to continue his own life. She happens to be a good candidate to become a host, so if he does not kill her, then he will use this method to kill her while he watches. The horror of the situation sank in as Yuro realized that Orochimaru would then wear her skin, but still, he couldn't bring himself enough courage to kill his own mother just so that Orochimaru didn't do it instead.
Maybe if he had more time to think about then-
Orochimaru gestured behind Yuro. Kabuto at some point entered and began to forcibly hold Yuro in place while Orochimaru performed the Living Corpse Reincarnation Technique. He wondered why his mother didn't try to stop this, but if he could think properly at the moment then he would have understood.
Even if she was indeed a shinobi at one point years ago from Konohagakure, then she knew about Orochimaru, the Legendary Sannin who later defected from the village. With her strength, she wouldn't have a chance to take Yuro and her out of there, so if her sacrifice could give Yuro a better chance of survival, then she would take it without fear or hesitation.
So it went just like that, Orochimaru shed his prior host to make her the new one while Yuro watched the entire process. The pain and distress he felt as he witnessed this moment was beyond anything he had ever experienced. And without his wanting to, his Sharingan came to life, the three-tomoe pattern beginning to spin, its pattern changing amidst his silent anguish and rage.
Back in the present, Yuro slowly stood the memory of his mother's death, no, her sacrifice, clear and vivid in his mind. He turned to face Orochimaru, his eyes already transformed into that of the Mangekyo Sharingan, something he had forced himself to forget along with the memory now fully awakened once more. The pain, anguish, sorrow, everything that had been buried and locked away was raw and fresh.
—
Where Kabuto was healing Kidōmaru and the others, Yuro's clone had been acting just like anyone else would be doing. As Kabuto went from most injured to least, it was Yuro's job to go from least to worst, healing cuts, bruises, the little things.
The clone looked like he had no worries in the world, cleaning off the blood and then closing the wounds immediately after or just fixing up bruises if there was nothing else left. On the inside, however, he was very worried, worried about how his main body was doing.
The plan to get himself to become Orochimaru's new host by force had so many flaws. In theory, he was going to do it the same way Sasuke had done in canon when Orochimaru attempted to make him the host. Use the Sharingan to reverse the technique to have Orochimaru sealed inside him instead.
The first flaw, Yuro had no curse mark. The second was not being sure if Orochimaru could just cancel the technique or just how exactly the technique worked. He only ever had a vague understanding of how the Living Corpse Reincarnation Technique worked at all.
All he knew was that Orochimaru would shed his prior host and, using his true form, swallow the next host to take them over. And how exactly Sasuke was able to crack and reverse a technique Orochimaru made himself through years of hard work in mere moments was a mystery.
Yes, the Sharingan could see through and unravel a technique to allow for it to be copied, but to do so for a technique tailor-made by Orochimaru only to ever be used by himself, how could the Sharingan be able to crack it because it was essentially a man-made Kekkei Genkai. Only Orochimaru would have been able to use it because it was made to work in a very specific way with a body so specifically made like his.
So how in the world could Sasuke have used the Sharingan to just uno-reverse such a technique mere moments after witnessing it?
Was Sasuke just that good or was it the Sharingan? Or maybe it was the cursed mark that made it possible? Orochimaru did put a little bit of himself inside of each of them and Sasuke just so happened to have Kakashi who earlier put a seal on it which theoretically made it a seal that could contain Orochimaru.
So just reversing the technique and shoving Orochimaru inside the cursed mark which already had a seal on it made everything work out? And Sasuke looked like he wasn't even worried about it failing. Overconfidence? Plot Armor? Calculated Risk?
But suddenly, Yuro's clone paused in his work and thoughts. He began to feel something strange. Like an itch but all too quickly everything began to burn. His body, mind, spirit, everything hurt so much.
Kabuto also began to see Yuro's strange behavior and looked over just in time to see him disappear in a cloud of smoke moments after he collapsed to the floor. The others, besides the still unconscious Tayuya, also saw this, and question marks were almost visible above their heads.
They might have just been confused that the whole time this was a clone, and Kabuto would have thought the same, if not for seeing something right before the clone disappeared. Its eyes for barely a second flashed the same Mangekyo Sharingan he saw years ago. But it was sealed ever since the event. If Kabuto hadn't been there to knock out Yuro when he went berserk after awakening it, then both he and Orochimaru would have died.
He might have only seen it in action once, and briefly at that as well, but if it would have been disastrous to allow it to continue. So after knocking Yuro out, Orochimaru decided to seal it and wait until a better time to allow Yuro to practice its usage. A time that wasn't that moment.
But when Yuro regained consciousness, he had forgotten all about the event to their surprise. So it was decided to allow this to be forgotten until he grew up to handle the truth better. It was also after this event that Yuro developed his insomnia.
But now, Kabuto had just witnessed the seal which had been holding strong for years suddenly be undone on a mere clone. Not only that, but something else was off with the clone. Something had happened that just caused the seal to break and it wasn't due to healing cuts and bruises.
So where was Yuro at right now if not here?
"When you arrived back, where was Yuro?" He asked Kidōmaru who he was currently working on. This kid had lost a whole arm during the mission, though he still had five more.
"He was with Orochimaru-sama when we came back. Orochimaru-sama told him to follow us here, but I didn't think it was a shadow clone the whole time. When did the brat learn that technique?"
Kabuto didn't respond to that, because he also didn't know when Yuro managed that and continued his train of thought to then come to a few conclusions. One was that it was indeed a clone from beginning to end, but Orochimaru would have known if it was a clone.
Two, it was the real one until right before he arrived here and used his clone to substitute himself, but for what purpose? And what could have happened to cause a clone to disperse itself, especially right after it seemed like the Sharingan seal came loose?
Yuro had always seemed like an unusual child. The way he acted made Kabuto think that he was born a little different, in more ways than just an underdeveloped body. But then there were moments when Yuro displayed more maturity or cunning than any child his age like when Kabuto watched Yuro fight the root shinobi who tried to assassinate him. It was something that just went back and forth constantly so trying to figure out what he was thinking sometimes felt impossible.
But an idea came crawling inside Kabuto's mind that might explain things, but it seemed so far-reaching and idiotic. Yet just in case, he would go and see. Luckily, Kidōmaru, Jirobo, Sakon, and Tayuya had their life-threatening injuries gone so leaving for a bit wouldn't do much harm.
"Stay here and rest. I'll be back in a bit."
They nodded and Kabuto left to head towards where Orochimaru was probably performing the ritual with Sasuke. When he arrived, the door to Orochimaru's lab was wide open which could almost confirm his suspicion but he didn't let it.
Silently nearing, he peaked around the corner to look in. What met his sight was surprising, to say the least. There were two people inside, while the empty shell of Orochimaru was on the ground.
Sasuke Uchiha looked to be himself, although he was staring wide eyes and in horror at the other person. And when Kabuto also laid eyes on the other person, his suspicions were almost made correct while at the same time, it also laid out more questions simply because the person who stood there didn't look like Orochimaru or Yuro yet at the same time did.
This person looked like Orochimaru in a way. White skin, purple markings around the snake-like eyes, long and straight black hair, but the facial features weren't exactly the same. He also wore the clothes that Yuro had, but they were ripped and barely covered anything.
So who was this then? This wasn't the result of Living Corpse Reincarnation but something else. Was this Orochimaru? Or was it Yuro?
And It seemed like this person had noticed Kabuto and turned to look over at the door, allowing Kabuto to fully see their face and then see the snake-like eyes turn to that of the same Mangekyo Sharingan Kabuto remembered.
(A/N: Here is an image of the pattern.)
"Oh, it's just Kabuto." A voice that wasn't Yuro or Orochimaru spoke.
The more Kabuto thought about the current situation, the more he began to understand that something had indeed gone wrong with the Living Corpse Reincarnation Technique. So now that he was seen, he fully walked into the room while refusing to meet 'Orochimaru's' eyes.
"You're lucky that you are still useful, otherwise I'd kill you right now." 'Orochimaru' said with a small smirk beginning to appear on his lips. The young-sounding voice made it seem like it was Yuro talking, but the way he spoke and his expression was that of Orochimaru.
"Wh-"
"Which one am I?" The smirk bloomed some more.
"...Yes." Kabuto looked down at the empty husk nearby, trying to piece together what happened himself.
"I guess the right answer would be both." 'Orochimaru' said while also looking at the husk, the modified body of Orochimaru's prior host. "Like a child is half of each parent, I am made up of both Orochimaru and Yuro." He then tilted his head a bit and looked back at Kabuto. "Actually, that makes it seem more complicated. Think of it simply as a combination of Orochimaru and Yuro. Instead of being two separate people, we are one."
'Well, three people now being one.' He thought, remembering the existence of another set of memories belonging to a different life in an entirely different world. Those memories made everything more complicated.
"But how?" Kabuto still asked. If everything was true then how did it get to this point?
"That's also simple." 'Orochimaru' just pointed to his eyes which still held the Mangekyo Sharingan. That explanation did, in fact, not make things seem simple, but he didn't give any kind of other explanation. That's all Kabuto was going to get for an answer.
"Kabuto, take Sasuke and leave. Heal him and show him to an empty room." He then turned to look at Sasuke who still looked to be on guard. "Lucky for you, Sasuke, I do not need your body anymore."
~
(A/N: First of all, sorry if you don't like where this is going, but hey, not only is this a fanfiction, it is my fanfiction. I know that no matter what I do there will be people who don't like it or where things are headed. So I hope you find that one fanfic which ticks all your boxes and sorry mine ain't it.
Now to get back to what really matters right now, I think he would look best as Boruto-style Orochimaru but instead of being an adult, a teenager. Basically Orochimaru but not as naturally intimidating.)
And here is an Image of that.
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