Sound's Strange (Part 5)

You can find Part 1, Part 2 , Part 3 and Part 4 over here 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

It had taken a fair bit of convincing before Hideo allowed Harry to come along to the source of the disturbance. Towards what Hideo had been certain was a very angry Sasuke.

A rather normal occurrence in Sound, apparently.

But instead of a violent and annoyed Sasuke at their destination, a giant purple snake loomed above them, hissing incoherently as blood dripped down his jaw.

“That's not Sasuke, right?” Harry asked with a cautious tone.

“That is Manda, Orochimaru's main summon,” Hideo explained, a tone of worry clear in his voice.

“That's my father,” Trouble hissed at the same time.

“Your father?” Harry repeated with a frown, wondering if he would have preferred snake-Sasuke instead. “This can't be good.”

Trouble tried to sink down under the collar Harry's shirt and would have if Harry hadn't grabbed a hold of him.

“Did he eat Sasuke?” Suigetsu asked, trying to sound amused instead of unnerved.

Manda turned to them. “Where is Orochimaru?”

Harry wondered if he was cursed. He glanced at Hideo, saw that he wouldn't get any help from there and took a deep breath. “He's dead.”

 “You,” Manda lowered his head, till Harry could smell the blood on his breath. “What did you say?”

“Orochimaru is dead,” Harry said.

“What are you?” Manda hissed, turning so that one slitted green eye focused on Harry. “How do you speak in our tongue?”

Harry considered giving a real answer. “That's none of your concern.”

Trouble startled against Harry's neck, drawing Manda's attention.

“You have one of my spawn,” Manda said, an odd lilt to his words. “Did Orochimaru give him to you?”

Harry snorted. “Trouble found me long before Orochimaru managed to kidnap me.”

“Kabuto,” Trouble corrected with a much softer hiss than usual. “Kabuto kidnapped you.”

“Doesn't matter, they both wanted to experiment on me,” Harry said with a shake of his head. “And now they're both dead. So it matters even less.”

“Nidaime-sama?” Hideo said with a very low whisper, as though hoping not to catch Manda's notice.

“You are Orochimaru's successor,” Manda declared as though everything finally made sense. “I suppose I'll suffer you as my new summoner.”

“No,” Harry said without hesitation.

Manda's fangs flashed as he hissed. “No? You will sign.”

“I'm not following Orochimaru's footsteps,” Harry said. “Besides, from what little I've heard of you, we'd never work well together.”

Manda lunged forward, mouth wide and blood coated fangs gleaming.

Thick smoke filled the air.

Harry coughed and lowered his hand in confusion.

A gust of cold wind blew the smoke away from Harry's face as Hideo appeared in front of Harry with a bow. “Nidaime-sama, I apologize for not being fast enough.”

“Fast enough for what? Did you create that smoke?”

Hideo twitched. “Didn't you do that?”

A screech cut through the smoke a moment before a familiar weight landed on Harry's shoulder.

“You emptied a bag of smoke bombs?” Hideo asked, eyes on the empty pouch in Hedwig's claw.

Hedwig hooted with pride as the thick grey smoke thinned and visibility returned.

“Father?” Trouble hissed in surprised confusion.

“Did you kill Manda?” Suigetsu asked, a strange disappointment lacing his words.

“Of course not.” Harry knelt down and grabbed a small purple snake that was barely the size of his palm. “See, he's fine,” Harry said, even as he looked past the shrunken Manda at the dusty but intact bed. “Looks like he didn't actually eat Sasuke. That's good.”

“Unbelievable,” Suigetsu breathed out. “Why are you so... how?”

“Nidaime-sama,” Hideo sounded liked he agreed with Suigetsu.

Harry glanced between the two of them and sighed, “All right, I'll deal with Manda properly.” He stared down at the snake and then turned to Trouble. “Any ideas?”

Trouble stared back at Harry. “I don't think he'll accept your no after you managed this.”

“How do I get rid of him?” Harry asked.

“He'll return to the mountain if he's injured,” Trouble hesitated.

“What about if he's knocked out?”

“That could work too,” Trouble confirmed, hiding away from Manda's small but still dangerous glare.

Harry raised the snake up to his eye and said, “If you ever come here again, I'll turn you into a ...toad before I send you back.” Before Manda could formulate a reply, red light filled Harry's hand and Manda's shrunken form disappeared in wisps of white smoke. “How did he even come here?” Harry asked.

“Sasuke,” Hideo said after a long moment of silence. “He's a snake summoner.”

“He's sleeping,” Harry pointed out.

Trouble raised his head higher and hissed, “Sasuke has a summoning seal on him. My father probably reverse-summoned himself. I'm not sure about how it works. You only get to learn that when you get a name.”

Sasuke slept, his face peaceful amidst all the chaos he had somehow created in his sleep.

“What do you plan to do with him?” Hideo asked even as he signalled to the people who had just shown up.

“Let him sleep,” Harry said. “But maybe move him somewhere cleaner. This place needs to be cleaned up before it can be used again. Actually everywhere we passed by could use some cleaning.” He turned to Hideo. “There are cleaning supplies around here, right?”

“Kabuto liked to keep things sterile, I'm sure he has supplies somewhere.”

“Cleaning this place will do wonders for everyone.” Harry considered it for a moment. “Hopefully.”

Suigetsu snorted.

“Won't you like it better when it's cleaner?” Harry asked, only to pause with a frown. “Are you all right? You look paler than before.”

Suigetsu scoffed. “This shitty place doesn't need to be cleaned, it needs to be rebuilt so that it had more water fountains.”

Harry tilted his head in consideration. “Are you thirsty?”

“Everyone should be thirsty after all that smoke we had to breath in. When was the last time you had something to drink?”

Harry thought about it for a moment. “It has been a while since I ate.”

“Shall we head to the cafeteria, Nidaime-sama?”

“There's a cafeteria?” Harry turned to Hideo with surprise. “With real food?”

Hideo shrugged as he led them away. “It's edible and Kabuto ensured that it filled out daily nutritional requirements.”

“That doesn't sound nice,” Harry grimaced. His grimace deepened with disgust when they entered the cafeteria. The dull room with long stained tables under unhappy lighting looked like it belonged in prison. “How can anyone want to spend any time in here, let alone eat here?”

“It's perfectly functional and in good running condition.”

“You know that you can have colour on the walls, Hideo. Why is everything so grey? Was Orochimaru allergic to actual colours?”

Suigetsu snorted, only to cough in the next instant. He kept coughing even when Hideo brought out a single bowl.

“What is that?” Harry asked with a frown as he looked into the bowl's soggy contents.

“It'll give you energy,” Hideo said.

“It might also destroy my taste buds,” Harry said.

Hideo blinked and after a flick of his fingers, pushed a bottle of chilli sauce to Harry.

“That will definitely destroy my taste buds,” Harry pushed the bowl to Suigetsu. “I'm actually not hungry at the moment.”

Suigetsu grabbed Harry's bowl and slurped down the goop with gusto, his sharp teeth flashing with every bite.

“Hungry?”

In between bites, Suigetsu stared at him. “You think Kabuto delivered food down in my grand palace.”

Remembered the glass tube, Harry searched through his pockets and shoved a bright paper covered chocolate to the other teen. “Don't settle for the taste bud killer as your first taste of food.”

Suigetsu hesitated, but with a look at Harry, he grabbed the chocolate with narrowed eyes. Tearing the paper off, Suigetsu bit down and his purple eyes widened in surprise.

Harry pretended not to notice and turned to Hideo. “So where's everyone else?”

“A majority of the ninja are out completing missions,” Hideo said. “And the rest are scattered across the other bases. Orochimaru-sama liked to have places that he could retreat to if any of his pursuers got too close.” Hideo cleared his throat. “But I've sent out messages, so they'll come by to meet you soon, Nidaime-sama.”

“I don't,” Harry paused and sighed, a wave of weariness washing over him. “You know what... this has been the longest day of my life. I need to sleep. Things might be different after I get some sleep.”

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

This AU continues to grow in strange directions away from any semblance of plot. But I like writing dialogue for it.

Here's some news about AtO 16- I'm stuck with some boring but necessary research.

But I am making some progress with AtO 16 and even though I can't give you an upload date at the moment, I hope it's reassuring to know that it's being worked on now.

Polar