"Ready yourself, Sasuke."
Mito gave the only warning she intended to, then channeled her chakra along with a specialized seal formula directly into the curse mark on his body.
In the span of a blink, Sasuke felt as though he'd been caught in a genjutsu. The world dissolved, and he found himself standing in a place that defied reason.
No sky above. No ground below.
Beneath his feet, something soft and yielding replaced solid earth, its texture uncomfortably organic, like the lining of some massive intestinal cavity. Everything the eye could reach was the same bruised purple-red of rotting flesh.
"What a revolting place."
Sasuke turned. The voice belonged to Mito Uzumaki, standing right behind him.
"Lady Mito?!" He whipped around. "Where are we?!"
"Inside the space created by the curse mark on your body," she said, surveying the grotesque landscape with calm distaste. "You could also call it Orochimaru's domain."
A third voice slithered through the stillness: "I never imagined even you would be resurrected, Princess of the Uzumaki Clan."
Sasuke stiffened. "That voice..."
"Come out and face us, Orochimaru." Mito stepped in front of Sasuke, shielding him as she addressed the empty expanse. "Whatever you've been researching, whatever you're chasing, you've already strayed from anything resembling your original path. Enough is enough."
Laughter answered her, strange and wet.
The mound of decayed flesh before them began to rise, sculpting itself into a vaguely human shape.
"It's been a while, Sasuke." Orochimaru's gaze drifted to Mito. "I believe this is my first time seeing you in this form, Lady Mito." Malice dripped from every syllable. "The last time we crossed paths, you were a withered old woman on death's doorstep. How does it feel to be brought back in the bloom of youth?"
Mito looked thoroughly unbothered. "And you, Orochimaru. When you were Sasuke's age, you were far more endearing than this."
"Heh heh heh. People change, don't they? Though when it comes to appearances, I can always swap into a fresh one."
As his voice echoed, the putrid ground around Mito and Sasuke erupted into new growths, swollen tumors of rotting tissue pushing upward, and from each one emerged a face. Dozens of them. Every person Orochimaru had ever consumed, staring out from the meat with hollow eyes.
"Disgusting!"
"Oh, you shouldn't find them disgusting, Sasuke." Orochimaru's tone dropped low. "You'll be joining their ranks soon enough."
"What exactly do you think we came here to do?" Mito said.
"So Lady Mito truly intends to interfere with my plans?" Orochimaru pivoted toward Sasuke, his smile widening. "Don't you want power? The power to kill Itachi Uchiha, the power to destroy Konoha, or perhaps the power to protect your mother and that Nine-Tails brat. I can give you all of it!"
Sasuke said nothing.
"Come now, Sasuke! Are you telling me you don't want power?!"
Mito spoke into the silence. "Orochimaru, you were such a quiet child. Barely said a word. When did you become this? Your research has caused you to stray from your ninja way. Stay here and reflect on that."
"Wait." Just as Mito moved to begin the sealing, Sasuke's hand caught her arm.
"Orochimaru." His voice was cold, contemptuous. "Is this your true form? This... disgusting mess?"
"Trying to provoke me, Sasuke? This is merely a small sacrifice made in the pursuit of power. Weren't you once willing to sacrifice everything for the same thing?"
"You said it yourself. Once."
"Oh? You no longer need power? You've given up on killing Itachi and avenging the Uchiha? Given up on restoring the clan? Or have you grown so arrogant that you believe you can protect Mikoto Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki all on your own?"
The words struck a nerve. Sasuke's eyes blazed, the three tomoe of the Sharingan he'd awakened only yesterday spinning to life.
"You underestimate Itachi far too much, Sasuke." Orochimaru pressed harder. "And you underestimate the Akatsuki's true leader even more. Not Pain. I mean Tobi."
Both Mito and Sasuke froze. "Tobi?!"
"The masked man. The one who helped your dear brother slaughter the Uchiha clan. Even I hadn't realized he was the Akatsuki's real leader. Quite the master of deception."
"I don't care what he used to threaten my brother," Sasuke growled. "Sooner or later, I'll kill him."
Orochimaru wouldn't relent. "With your current strength? He's a man even I couldn't defeat. Only by combining your ocular powers with my abilities would you have any hope of beating him. Come, Sasuke. Accept my power!"
Silence stretched between them. Sasuke's jaw tightened. His strength was laughable. He couldn't even beat Kakashi, let alone someone like Tobi.
Mito's hand settled on his shoulder. "Remember what I told you? If it were Naruto, he'd say, 'Wind exists to make fire burn brighter.'"
Sasuke blinked.
"You really are more oblivious than I expected," she said, her tone almost fond. "What I mean is, if you decide to walk that path, do you honestly think Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, and the rest of Konohagakure would let you walk it alone? Try trusting your comrades once in a while. They worry about you more than you know."
Team 7 surfaced in his mind, and something loosened in his chest. "Only wind can make fire burn brighter"... Yeah. That sounds like something the idiot would say.
"Orochimaru." Sasuke's voice dropped, steady and sure. "You almost led me off course. I won't become like Itachi, drowning in my own ego. I won't repeat his mistakes and hurt the people around me. And I will never walk the path he laid out for me!"
His hands flew into a seal, ready to unleash the Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique.
"Well said."
But something moved faster than his hands ever could.
Golden light streaked through the corner of his vision, ribbons of it racing past him and screaming toward Orochimaru.
Thud. Thud-thud-thud. Thud-thud.
By the time Sasuke processed what he was seeing, over a dozen chains of golden chakra had driven themselves deep into the flesh-covered ground, binding Orochimaru in an inescapable web.
Each chain was as thick as a man's waist. Each tip ended in a spike as heavy and sharp as a kunai blade.
They erupted from Mito's back in an unbroken torrent, thirty meters long and still growing, still reaching.
"It's useless!" Orochimaru snarled. "This is my space! Even your sealing techniques can't touch me here!"
"You think this is all the Uzumaki clan has to offer?"
This was the power that had chained the Nine-Tails itself, the mightiest of all tailed beasts, inside her body for a lifetime.
"Don't underestimate Uzumaki sealing arts, Orochimaru!"
Sasuke could only stare.
The golden chains plunged into the rotting ground, pierced through the other side, burst back out like needles stitching impossible seams, weaving in and out, faster and faster, until the entire space seemed flooded with shimmering gold.
"Adamantine Sealing Chains... Seal!"
Mito's hands locked into the Confrontation Seal. Her voice thundered through the void.
Every chain obeyed at once, wrenching tight like thread pulled through a suture.
"AAAAAGH!" Orochimaru screamed. "You... you can seal the entire space along with me?!"
"I told you. You underestimate the Uzumaki."
There was a reason the other shinobi nations had feared the clan enough to band together and annihilate them. The Uzumaki were anything but ordinary.
Before pulling Sasuke out through the curse mark's boundary, Mito turned back one last time. "Stay here and think long and hard about the mistakes you've made, Orochimaru."
Consciousness rushed back. They were in the same room inside the Central Tower, exactly where they'd started.
"Is Orochimaru completely sealed?" Sasuke asked.
"No. I can sense through my chakra that he's placed identical curse marks on several other people. When he tries to consume one of them, he'll revive through that host."
"Tch. Persistent and revolting."
Mito's thoughts drifted. She remembered a time long, long ago, when Hiruzen Sarutobi had brought three small students before her for inspection. She never could have imagined that decades later, the pretty, quiet boy among them would become... this.
She shook her head. Whatever Orochimaru had endured in the years since, she didn't know, and it wasn't her place to judge.
"The seal is in place. Get some rest, and the day after tomorrow we leave."
"Thank you, Lady Mito." Sasuke bowed his head, and meant it.
He glanced at the spot on his neck where the curse mark sat. It was still there, but now ringed by several layers of intricate sealing script, locked down tight.
The curse mark's power had gone completely silent. He couldn't feel it at all.
"Lady Mito... about the seal on Naruto..."