Sakon pulled his collar aside, deliberately exposing the dormant, three-tomoed Curse Mark resting on his skin.
Across the clearing, Sasuke's own mark flared beneath his collar. Karin's fresh monitoring strip darkened immediately, reacting before he had channelled any chakra himself. Beneath it, Kakashi's containment script tightened around the Curse Mark and forced the spreading heat back into a dull, manageable ache.
Sasuke needed no further explanation. These strangers carried the same tainted chakra Orochimaru had planted inside his neck.
He kept his Sharingan active and studied their positions without attacking. One controlled the canopy, another blocked the nearest route toward the inhabited district, and the woman with the flute watched the remaining opening. Sakon stood close enough to intercept him whichever direction he chose.
They had not entered Konoha merely to deliver a message.
"Now you know who sent us," Sakon said, lowering his collar with a satisfied smirk. "I'm Sakon. The one sharing my body is Ukon."
Ukon's second face shifted beside his brother's shoulder, watching Sasuke through a half-open eye.
Sakon gestured around the clearing. "Tayuya. Kidomaru. Jirobo."
Sasuke memorized the names without lowering his guard.
"If this is an invitation," Sasuke said coldly, his voice steady despite the adrenaline, "why does it require four armed shinobi blocking every escape route?"
Jirobo stepped forward, his massive frame blocking the path leading back to the village center. "We were ordered to ensure you reach our master safely."
Tayuya scoffed from her perch on the stone marker, tapping the edge of her wooden flute against her palm. "The invitation is the polite part. Don't make us do the rest."
Sasuke glanced toward Jirobo, who still blocked the path back toward the populated district. Tayuya had merely admitted what their positioning already made clear.
Sakon continued as though Tayuya had not spoken. Orochimaru would teach Sasuke to use the Curse Mark's advanced stage, build his training around the Sharingan, and remove the restrictions imposed by Kakashi, Karin, and the village. With that power, Sakon claimed, Sasuke could grow strong enough to face Itachi.
He also offered information about the Uchiha—records and secrets that Konoha had supposedly kept from its last surviving clan member.
Kidomaru grinned from the canopy and released the first stage of his own Curse Mark. Jagged patterns spread across his skin as his chakra rose sharply, filling the clearing with the same foul pressure now burning beneath Sasuke's collar.
"Your mark is incomplete because you keep fighting it," Sakon said. "Konoha seals the power away because they fear what you will become once you control it."
Sasuke allowed him to continue. He trusted none of them, but an enemy willingly revealing what Orochimaru knew, wanted, and could offer was still giving away information.
Once Sakon finished laying out the supposed benefits, Sasuke lowered his kunai slightly.
"And what does Orochimaru receive?" Sasuke asked.
Sakon smiled, adopting an earnest tone. "Orochimaru-sama wants a worthy student and successor."
Sasuke did not believe him. Orochimaru had marked him without permission, invaded Konoha for forbidden techniques, and watched the Sharingan with the hunger of a collector. A teacher looking for a worthy student did not send four shinobi to surround that student and refuse to let him leave.
"A successor?" Sasuke asked. "Then why does your master care more about my eyes than my answer?"
Sakon's smile remained, but he offered no denial. Tayuya stopped tapping her flute, and Jirobo lowered his stance.
Their silence confirmed enough. Whatever Orochimaru called the arrangement, Sasuke would enter it as property.
Sakon's voice hardened. "Do you really believe your current teachers can make you strong enough before Itachi grows even farther beyond you?"
Sasuke looked at the four Curse Marks surrounding him. They had accepted Orochimaru's chakra more deeply than he ever intended to.
"I will become strong enough to kill Itachi," Sasuke said. "But the power will belong to me."
His kunai rose into a ready position.
"Tell Orochimaru to find another body."
Tayuya lifted her flute and played one sharp note.
Four paper seals flashed beneath roots and stones around the clearing. Sasuke's Sharingan caught their positions as the barrier rose, but the seals had been planted before the Sound Four revealed themselves. They had prepared the training ground while he was still practising alone.
A faint boundary stretched between the surrounding trees. It did not stop bodies from crossing, but the sounds of the forest immediately became distant. The barrier also disrupted weak chakra signals attempting to pass through it, preventing ordinary warning tags from reaching their paired seals outside.
Sasuke fed chakra into the warning tag inside his pouch. The paper warmed against his fingers, flickered once, and went dead without receiving an answer from the village.
Shouting would accomplish nothing. He needed to send something above the barrier that the village could see.
Up in the canopy, Kidomaru rapidly began filling the trees with nearly invisible, reinforced web lines. Jirobo completely blocked the shortest path toward the inhabited sectors of the village. Tayuya remained precisely outside of immediate melee range, her flute ready.
Sakon and Ukon advanced on Sasuke together.
"Walk out with us," Sakon offered one final time, "or we carry you."
Sasuke drew a second kunai. "Try."
Sasuke did not charge Sakon in the center. He threw his first kunai at Tayuya, forcing her behind the stone marker before she could continue playing. His second kunai cut one of the training wires stretched between the nearby trees.
The released line triggered a volley of shuriken Sasuke had prepared for his blind-angle exercise.
The intruders had found and cut his outer warning wire, but they had left the shorter lines scattered throughout the training field. To them, the wires had appeared to be leftovers from Sasuke's practice. He knew where every one of them led.
Sasuke pulled another release line. A wire tightened around Sakon's ankle and broke his approach while Sasuke sent fire into the lower canopy, burning through Kidomaru's descending web.
A ricocheting shuriken sliced through Tayuya's sleeve and kept her behind cover. When Jirobo rushed forward, Sasuke used the clumsy-looking stumble Zabuza had taught him. Jirobo misjudged the distance and committed to a heavy punch that struck empty air.
Sasuke slipped past the attack and planted an explosive tag against Jirobo's back.
The explosion tore through the clearing. Jirobo absorbed most of the blast, but the force still drove him several steps forward and scattered the others away from Sasuke.
Sakon ripped the wire from his ankle and looked from the scorched canopy to the tag burning against Jirobo's back. The careless fighter Orochimaru had watched during the exams was gone.
"Enough playing," he ordered.
All four activated the first stages of their Curse Marks simultaneously.
Their chakra signatures rose sharply, a dark, heavy pressure filling the clearing. In immediate response, Sasuke's own mark began burning furiously beneath Kakashi's containment seal, fighting against the restriction.
Sasuke did not use Swift Step. Karin had forbidden another burst that day, and the Curse Mark was already burning merely from the Sound Four releasing their chakra. Forcing the technique now would give the mark exactly the opening it wanted.
He relied on his Sharingan, ordinary footwork, substitutions, wire traps and precise Fire Release instead. Chidori remained unused because the four enemies refused to give him the straight, uninterrupted charge the technique required.
Sasuke kept moving through the traps he had laid before the intruders arrived. He pulled Sakon across Jirobo's path with a training wire, forced Kidomaru to abandon one branch with fire, and used the resulting opening to close the distance toward Tayuya.
Removing the Sound Four's ranged disruptor would make the rest of the fight easier even if the barrier remained active.
Before Sasuke could reach Tayuya, a thick strand of webbing dropped from the canopy and wrapped around his left forearm. Kidomaru pulled hard, dragging his arm upward and breaking his balance.
Sasuke caught the strand with his free hand, pressed an explosive tag against the sticky web, and detonated it. The blast scorched his sleeve but severed the strand just as Sakon entered striking distance.
Sakon lunged. Sasuke read the approaching strike and shifted into position to block it.
At the final moment, Ukon's face and second arm tore outward from Sakon's shoulder. The Sharingan caught the movement, but Sakon's body had hidden the second attack until it was already inside Sasuke's guard.
Ukon's fist drove into Sasuke's ribs with a heavy crack.
Before Sasuke could recover from the impact, Jirobo followed up with a massive, two-handed blow that launched Sasuke through the air, smashing him straight through one of the old, heavy wooden training targets.
Wood splintered everywhere as Sasuke crashed into the dirt. He coughed violently, tasting blood, but forced himself to rise despite the heavy damage.
Sakon watched Sasuke force himself upright and wiped the blood from his cheek. The satisfied amusement disappeared from his expression.
"Break him."
He and Ukon rushed forward together. Sasuke read Sakon's first strike, but Ukon emerged from the opposite side of his brother's body and caught Sasuke before he could complete the counter.
Sasuke twisted away from the next blow, only for Jirobo to close the path behind him. Sakon struck his injured ribs, Ukon swept his legs out from under him, and both brothers drove him hard against the ground.
Before Sasuke could form another hand seal, Sakon caught him by the shoulder and pressed his marked hand directly against the Curse Mark on Sasuke's neck.
Foreign chakra poured into the seal. The jagged pattern spread immediately, racing beyond Kakashi's containment script. Karin's monitoring strip turned black and released its own suppression lines across the dark marks. Both restraints tightened around the Curse Mark, slowing its advance while Sakon continued forcing more chakra into it.
Pain tore through Sasuke's neck and shoulder. His vision blurred as dark lines pushed across his jaw despite both layers of restraint.
"Resisting it is what causes the pain," Sakon told him calmly, holding him down. "Orochimaru-sama can teach you how to stop resisting. He can teach you how to take everything it offers."
Sasuke's answer was to drive his forehead brutally forward, headbutting Sakon directly in the nose with a sickening crunch.
The physical contact broke. Sakon cursed, stumbling backward with blood pouring down his face.
Sasuke scrambled free, panting heavily. The Curse Mark remained partially active, the dark lines crawling up his jaw, and his movements were significantly slowed by the overwhelming pain and the cracked ribs.
Sasuke's vision blurred again. The four enemies remained on their feet, and the dark pattern had already reached his jaw. Winning the fight was no longer the immediate objective.
He needed the village to see the battle.
He retreated toward the far end of the training ground, where an old fire exercise had left a wide break in the canopy. Kidomaru mistook the movement for an escape attempt and fired a thick web strand around Sasuke's injured shoulder.
The web snapped tight and pulled Sasuke upward. Instead of resisting, he used the sudden movement to clear the lower branches. His hands formed the necessary seals before Kidomaru could drag him back down.
Sasuke inhaled sharply despite the pain in his ribs.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
The fireball erupted straight toward the evening sky. It cleared the treetops and expanded above the Uchiha compound, burning like a second sun over the eastern side of the village.
Tayuya's barrier swallowed the roar beneath the canopy. It could not hide the flames towering above it.
Sakon looked up. The last trace of amusement vanished from his face.
"Take him now!" Sakon roared.
The Sound Four completely abandoned any further attempt to persuade him.
Jirobo charged, catching Sasuke from behind and pinning his arms. Kidomaru dropped from the canopy, rapidly binding Sasuke's arms and legs with thick, heavily reinforced webbing.
Tayuya shifted into a harsh, chakra-laced sequence. The sound did not control Sasuke, but each note struck his balance and shattered his concentration while Jirobo and Kidomaru held him down. Every attempt to gather fire chakra collapsed before he could shape it.
Sakon stepped forward and pressed his cursed chakra directly into the mark on Sasuke's neck one final time, forcing his already exhausted body entirely into shock.
Sasuke remained barely conscious just long enough to see Sakon open a storage scroll on the dirt.
A heavy black barrel appeared in the clearing. Restraint seals covered its interior, and the chakra leaking from them pulled immediately at Sasuke's unstable Curse Mark. Its size, padding and seal placement had all been prepared for a single prisoner.
Sasuke desperately tried to form one final fire technique, but Tayuya disrupted it before he could even gather the chakra.
The Sound Four roughly sealed him inside the heavy barrel. Jirobo hoisted the container onto his broad back, and the four immediately began retreating east through the dense forest, moving as fast as they could before the village responded.
Less than a kilometre east of the abandoned Uchiha grounds, Naruto and Hinata were finishing their clone exercise at one of Team 8's forest training fields.
Naruto was arguing with one of his own clones when a pillar of fire rose above the distant trees.
The clone stopped arguing.
Naruto stared at the flames. Sasuke regularly trained in that section of the abandoned compound, and the towering fireball was aimed too high to be an ordinary practice attack.
Hinata activated her Byakugan. Her vision pushed through the intervening trees and found four unfamiliar chakra networks moving quickly toward the eastern forest. The largest man carried a sealed barrel across his back.
There was a person curled inside it, but the overlapping scripts distorted the chakra network and the barrel blocked most of Hinata's view. At that distance, she could not identify the prisoner.
"Four shinobi are heading east," Hinata said. "They have someone sealed inside that barrel."
Naruto created two fresh clones.
The first sprinted toward the nearest patrol station with the enemy count, direction of travel and location of the fire signal. The second remained near the entrance to the eastern trail, ready to direct anyone responding from the village.
Hinata removed Team 8's emergency signal tag and fed chakra into it. The seal flashed once, sending the warning directly to Kurenai's matching tag.
Naruto was already facing the eastern trees.
"That fire came from Sasuke's training ground."
Hinata kept her Byakugan fixed on the barrel as it passed between the eastern trees. The four chakra signatures were already nearing the edge of her current range.
"I can track them, but we have to move now."
Naruto launched himself toward the trees without waiting for the patrol response. Hinata followed beside him, keeping all four retreating chakra signatures inside her vision.
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