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Part 2

5 - Hunt for Uchiha Itachi

Sasuke Vs Orochimaru

At Orochimaru's lair, a sick Orochimaru was confined to his bed. As Kabuto exited to get more medicine, a blade made of lightning chakra shot towards Orochimaru through the door. Orochimaru quickly blocked it with his arms, and thought to himself that he did not recognize the shape manipulation, although the chakra itself seemed familiar. The blade belonged to Sasuke, who had stopped by to finish Orochimaru off before he left to take on Itachi. He claimed that he had nothing more to learn from Orochimaru, and mocked him for wasting his power and time, which angered Orochimaru.

After pinning Orochimaru's arms to the wall, Sasuke attempted to deliver a finishing blow, forcing Orochimaru to abandon his body and reveal his true form: a composite serpent-like entity made up of small white snakes. Sasuke activated his Cursed Seal Level 2, and began to fight Orochimaru. He compared Orochimaru's ambitions to how a snake dreams of flying, and told him that he would only get that chance in the talons of a hawk, as he sprouted his Cursed Seal wings.

After he severed Orochimaru's head from his body, Sasuke believed he had won. However, Orochimaru's poison paralyzed Sasuke, and the former then lunged at him, swallowing him whole. Sasuke found himself inside Orochimaru: the place where the body-transfer jutsu took place. Orochimaru relived a flashback of when he confronted Itachi while in Akatsuki. He found Sasuke's eyes to be similar to those of Itachi's on that day, and anticipated taking possession of those eyes. After the fight, Kabuto returned with the medicines, but viewed a scene consisting of Sasuke standing over Orochimaru. Kabuto asked Sasuke which one he was, to which Sasuke replied by showing Kabuto what had happened. Sasuke stated that he had merely taken over.

Hebi Is Born

After defeating his mentor, Sasuke freed Suigetsu, whom Orochimaru had imprisoned in a glass tank filled with water. Sasuke led Suigetsu to the Land of Waves, to retrieve Zabuza Momochi's sword from his grave. Upon their arrival, Sasuke noticed the bridge that was being built during his time there as a Konoha Genin, which was now named The Great Naruto Bridge. Suigetsu picked up the sword at Zabuza's grave, and explained that he had trained under the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist (which his senpai, Zabuza, had belonged to). With the sword, he claimed, he might even be able to beat Sasuke. After collecting it, they headed for their next target.

In the anime, it turned out that the sword was not beside Zabuza's grave, and that a man named Tenzen had claimed it for himself. Sasuke and Suigetsu asked the residents of the village where they could find him. Eventually, they discovered that he resided in a castle southeast of the village. Overnight, Sasuke intruded the castle, and threatened Tenzen to prepare an army of over a thousand men. The next day, Sasuke and Suigetsu prepared to invade the castle. Sasuke offered a wager with Suigetsu, to whoever could retrieve the sword first. Suigetsu later suggested that this had merely been a chance for Sasuke to witness Suigetsu's abilities, which Sasuke neither confirmed or denied. After a successful attempt of retrieving the sword, they both departed for their next target - Karin.

After arriving at the base, Sasuke and Suigetsu met Karin, who had sensed their arrival. Sasuke told Karin to join him, which surprised her. Sasuke replied that, since Orochimaru was now gone, there was no need for her to continue to keep watch over the prisoners she was currently guarding, and told an annoyed Suigetsu to free them. Karin relented, but still refused to go. Sasuke decided that he would just have to find someone else. However, Karin had a quick change of personality, and agreed to go if he really wanted her to. Suigetsu advised that they left, since Karin clearly didn't want to go. When Sasuke said she had changed her mind, Karin put her glasses back on after attempting to flirt with Sasuke, and denied this in a rather embarrassed manner, saying that she was coincidentally going the same way they were, at least for the moment.

As the three made their way to the North Hideout, Karin explained that Sasuke's next target, Jugo, was the means behind Orochimaru's development of the Cursed Seals. When the group got there, prisoners infected with the Cursed Seal surrounded Sasuke's group. When Karin informed them that Jugo was not among the prisoners, Sasuke and Suigetsu disposed of them without killing them (something Sasuke ordered). Having found the keys to Jugo's cell, Karin used her tracking ability to find him, misleading Suigetsu to the wrong direction while she was at it. At Jugo's cell, Karin unlocked the door, and Sasuke went in first.

Jugo, who had decided that if the first person to open the door was a male, he would kill him, seemed delighted to see Sasuke, and rushed in for the kill. Sasuke failed in his attempts to reason with Jugo. Jugo and Sasuke had a quick Cursed Seal battle, before it was interrupted by the arrival of Suigetsu. Suigetsu then appeared to take over the fight, explaining that beating Jugo to a pulp was the only way to calm him. Jugo morphed his piston arm into a massive forearm blade to deal with Suigetsu. After they ignored Sasuke's requests to stop, Sasuke wrapped the two in summoned snakes and exuded an enormous amount of killing intent. Jugo's transformation receded, and he suddenly rushed back to his cell, demanding they lock it. Karin explained that, while the rage-driven Jugo might be violent and bloodthirsty, Jugo himself had no desire to harm anyone.

Jugo finally agreed to go with Sasuke after hearing that Kimimaro, who was consistently able to stop Jugo's rage-driven rampages, had died to bring Sasuke to Orochimaru. With his team gathered and dubbed "Hebi" by Sasuke, Sasuke revealed their goal: to kill his brother, Itachi. Suigetsu, who wanted to take Kisame's sword for himself, was willing to participate, as Kisame was currently partnered with Itachi. Karin, being enamored with Sasuke, also agreed to help, although she was unwilling to admit that her admiration was the reason. (Suigetsu teased her about it, saying that he knew about something Karin did to Sasuke a while before. However, Karin punched Suigetsu in the face before he could reveal her secret.) Finally, Jugo acquiesced to see how strong Sasuke was, believing he was Kimimaro's reincarnation.

Sakura arrived at Naruto's home to tell him to wash up and get ready. They met up with Tsunade and Jiraiya, and Tsunade informed them of Orochimaru's death at Sasuke's hands, which Jiraiya's most trusted sources had confirmed. Both Naruto and Sakura seemed very happy to hear the news, expecting that, now that Orochimaru was dead, Sasuke would finally return to Konoha. However, Jiraiya told them that that was not exactly the case.

In Konoha, Naruto and Sakura came to the same conclusion as Sasuke, reasoning that his desire for revenge would drive him to kill Itachi. Therefore, they decided the simplest path to Sasuke was to find Itachi. As both teams resolved to find Itachi, both he and Kisame waited for the leader to contact them after having captured Roshi, the host of the Four-Tailed Monkey. Once they got into contact with their leader, Akatsuki went over the recent deaths of Hidan, Kakuzu, and Orochimaru, and Sasuke's new team. Knowing that Sasuke could potentially disrupt their plans, the leader warned everyone to be careful, especially Itachi and Kisame.

In Konoha, Kakashi discussed the overall plan to find Itachi and Kisame. Since simply killing Itachi first would make finding Sasuke impossible, they needed to capture him. For that purpose, Team Kakashi was joined by Team 8. Meanwhile, Sasuke took his team to an old Uchiha outpost run by allies of the Uchiha Clan in order to stock up on supplies. After Akatsuki finished sealing the Four-Tails, Deidara and Tobi decided to either track down Kakashi and Naruto or go after Sasuke.

As Deidara and Tobi searched for either of their two targets, the two teams split up. The Konoha ninja split into groups of three: one ninja and two of Kakashi's Ninken. Naruto was accompanied by Hinata and Yamato, due to Akatsuki's pursuit of him. Meanwhile, Sasuke's group split up to gather information on Akatsuki. As they searched, the Ninken accompanying Sakura caught Sasuke's scent. Her search led her into a city, but she was unable to find Sasuke. As she walked through a crowd, the ninken commented how the scent was "moving away", just as Karin was walking past her.

Kabuto revealed himself to Naruto's group, and gave them a book that detailed everything they had learned about Akatsuki. He thanked Naruto for inspiring him to find his own purpose in life, and revealed that he had absorbed Orochimaru's remains into himself: about 33% of his body was now Orochimaru's. With it, he planned to become stronger than Orochimaru. After evading Naruto and Yamato, he explained that he needed to control Orochimaru's power, which was slowly taking over his body, after which he would come after Sasuke for killing Orochimaru, and then Naruto.

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