Hidden Leaf Hospital
A boy lay in bed, silently staring at the figures gathered around him, his eyes half-open.
"Four broken ribs, multiple flash burns on your torso, internal burns - electrical, no less - with significant damage across your intestines—"
He gritted his teeth, struggling to temper the sheer rage coursing through his veins.
"You are not to get up from this bed until my assistant has properly cleared you. You are in no shape - no shape at all - to even think about intense training, as is your unfortunate habit—"
He could feel his heart threatening to burst out of his chest.
Concerned yet stern eyes stared back at him. "Please, understand that sometimes you must accept that there are losses to be faced. Such is the life of a shinobi. Today, you have lost."
In his head, he heard the Uchiha's mocking laughter. Sasuke's voice jeering at him, at his failures, his techniques, all utterly useless in the face of a prodigy whose talents far outstripped his own.
His eyes snapped open with tremendous force, and the anger that consumed his very being burst open almost like its own Gate. "I will never stop my—"
"Lee!"
The voice cut through the haze—feminine, gentle, pulling him back from the edge. He blinked rapidly and saw her.
"S-Sakura-san?"
His crush gave him a thin smile. "Calm down, Lee. It's just me. We're in the hospital now. You're fine, you're safe."
The fury that had surged through him vanished like the final flicker of a dying candle. "S-Sakura-san - I'm - I'm sorry, I didn't mean to -" he stammered out, slightly choking.
She silenced him gently, pressing a finger to his lips. "It's fine. Just relax. Lie back for me, would you?"
Lee felt his cheeks burn—more from embarrassment than anything else—as she eased him down until he was reclined at an angle, his head high enough to see the others in the room. Realizing he had even managed to sit up only deepened his mortification.
Once the immediate situation was taken care of, the room was enveloped in silence, thick, uncomfortable silence broken by the only other male member of Team 7 in the room.
"Hey, now that we're all awake, can we finally talk about what happened?!"
"Indoor voice, Naruto, we are in a hospital."
A teenager with two red streaks going down his cheeks scoffed. "You're using words that are too big for him, Sakura. Indoor isn't even in his vocabulary."
"Hey, of course, I know what that means!"
"Boys!" Sakura snapped, her patience fraying. Both Naruto and Kiba immediately looked away from each other.
Sakura shook her head, exhaling sharply, before turning her attention back to the others in the room.
The remaining members of the room stood gathered quietly, their faces marked by varying degrees of concern. Shikamaru leaned back against the far wall, arms crossed, the usual bored expression tempered by a furrowed brow and intense eyes. Ino stood beside him, her hands clenched at her sides. Shino remained still, the high collar of his jacket shadowing most of his face, while Tenten was by the window, arms folded, the tension in her shoulders clear. Neji, stoic as ever, stood nearby, his pale eyes unreadable.
The silence that followed the pointless quarrel was broken by none other than Neji. "Ignoring their senseless banter, Naruto does have a point. We must discuss what has happened and what our move will be going forward. Naruto," His stare shifted towards the addressed individual. "Are you up to date with what happened?"
Naruto nodded slowly, the earlier humor fading from his expression as he recalled the Tsunade's detailed account of the team's confrontation, information no doubt obtained from the group in front of him during treatment. The swift defeat they had faced wasn't just a physical blow; it was a harsh blow, a painful reminder to know how far Sasuke had progressed in his strength.
"Yeah, Granny Tsunade filled me in," Naruto said, his voice low, a stark contrast to his usual boisterous tone.
The more he thought about it, the more dread and trepidation filled his spirit at the thought of once again facing his old friend. If he could fight an entire platoon of his friends and Bushy-brows Sensei and still come out entirely unharmed, exactly how strong was Sasuke? And most importantly... "What was he like...?"
Kiba frowned. "What?"
"Sasuke." Naruto's voice cracked slightly. He gritted his teeth, frustration burning in his stomach. "What was he like?"
The Inuzuka gave a dark snort. "An evil bastard, that's what he is."
Anger flushed his veins. "Sasuke isn't evil!"
Kiba's smile was all teeth, no humor. "That's up for debate, but as far as I'm concerned? He needs to be put down."
"You are saying that because he left your pride in tatters," Neji declared coolly. "He didn't just defeat us, he humiliated us - made us look like amateurs - like genin on their first mission."
"How?! I don't understand - just how did that guy get so damn strong?! That's insane! That level of progress is madness, it's not possible! He didn't just fight us, he... he..."
Kiba looked like he wanted to continue venting, but the words caught in his throat. The humiliation was too fresh. He still remembered the fight, the ease with which Sasuke had dismantled them, the cold, emotionless eyes, watching and toying with them as if it were a game, a sparring match for him to test himself.
Tenten spoke up next, quieter than usual. "Maybe... maybe that wasn't really him."
Everyone turned.
"I mean," she clarified quickly, "maybe it was Orochimaru. Everyone knows he wants to take over Sasuke's body. It could have been him, under disguise."
Kiba frowned thoughtfully. "Now, that you mention it..."
Tenten chewed her lip thoughtfully. "His strength was off the charts - it's not normal, not from someone our age at least. It could have been him, using Sasuke's—"
"Huh?!" Naruto yelled, interrupting the self-proclaimed weapons mistress, much to her chagrin. "No way, no way, no way! Pervy Sage said it'd take three whole years for that creepy old snake to take over Sasuke's body!"
The idea twisted something ugly in his stomach.
He refused to believe Sasuke was already gone, that he'd been stolen away like that—before Naruto even had the chance to bring him home. If it were true, if his best friend, the one who acknowledged him when no one else did, had been taken...
The thought made his fists clench so tight his nails bit into his palms. If Orochimaru had done it, then Naruto would tear him apart with the Nine Tails if he had to.
The room fell into awkward silence. Several sets of eyes turned toward him with varying degrees of exasperation and disbelief.
Naruto blinked. "What?"
"Pervy... Sage…?" Ino mouthed,
"Yeah." Naruto folded his arms, pouting slightly. "He's an old pervert. Likes spying on bathhouses when he's not training me. Says it's all for 'research.'" He huffed. "He just finished writing a new Make-Out book. Pretty boring stuff, if you ask me. Don't get why Kakashi-sensei's so obsessed with it."
Ino shook her head, muttering under her breath, "That's horrible..."
Secretly, she made a mental note to find out when the new book was hitting shelves.
"Fascinating," Shikamaru muttered dryly. "But can we stay focused?" His eyes narrowed, casting a sharp look at Ino, before flicking toward Tenten and then Neji. "Tenten has a point. If we're being realistic... we have to consider the possibility that it wasn't really Sasuke you fought."
"It's not Orochimaru," Neji said flatly.
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at him. "And how are you so sure?" He shifted on his left leg slightly, cocking his head. "You guys said yourselves. Just going off of your description of the battle - Sasuke's strength was insane. Beyond what someone our age could even dream of reaching, hell, even thinking about it is impossible. Given Orochimaru's abilities, it's not a stretch to think he found a shortcut. Maybe Lord Jiraiya was wrong about the timeline. Scientists like Orochimaru don't play fair."
Neji simply shook his head once. "No." His white eyes gleamed. "If it were Orochimaru, none of us would have left that field alive."
The room grew colder at the implication. He continued.
"None of us - the team we took - would be standing here if it had been Orochimaru. He wouldn't have just defeated us, he would've broken us. Crippled us, left us maimed or dead, not out of necessity but out of amusement - to send a message. Maybe he would've even taken us alive, just to use us in whatever twisted experiments he's obsessed with - cruelty for cruelty's sake. The Uchiha, on the other hand, fought efficiently, as if we were simply in his way. Nothing more."
Lee, who had stayed quiet until now, suddenly sat up a little, his voice bursting with barely contained anger.
"How can you say that, Neji?!"
Neji only looked at him, silent, waiting for him to continue.
Lee's fists trembled in his lap. "You call that efficient?" he spat. "Did you see the way Sasuke-san fought?! He wasn't fighting like a real shinobi! He treated us like... like we were nothing! Like it was just some training match!" His teeth clenched audibly. "He looked at us like we were children! Like he was a teacher, and we were just students who could barely stand!"
His voice cracked slightly, the frustration thick in his chest. "He was playing with us, Neji! He enjoyed it! I could see it! It was a sparring match to him, not a fight!"
The room fell silent again, though Lee's thoughts were anything but. The words had opened a dam he hadn't meant to break.
He remembered it clearly. The way Sasuke moved was not like someone trying to kill or defeat an enemy. But with the same detached, focused interest Lee himself used whenever he sparred with less experienced juniors. Back when he would remove his ankle weights during practice, testing how far he'd come, adjusting his power just enough not to injure his sparring partners. Seeing how much to hold back. How far to go. How much to push.
It reminded him, painfully, of the Chunin Exams. Of when he had beaten a younger, cockier Sasuke into the ground with sheer speed and training. He had stood above him then, proud, a direct proof to the philosophy Gai-sensei had drilled into him—hard work beats talent.
But now... now the roles had reversed completely.
His gut twisted. He thought of Gai-sensei.
Gai-sensei had faced Sasuke too. His mentor, his hero, the man who trained harder than anyone Lee had ever known, the man who had built his body and spirit from nothing, who had sacrificed, trained, and bled for every ounce of strength he possessed. Gai had opened the Seventh Gate. The Seventh Gate! The gate that could shatter mountains, tear apart those born with natural genius.
And still, it hadn't been enough. Gai-sensei had lost.
He remembered how his sensei had described it afterward, his voice quiet in a way Lee had never heard before. Sasuke had regarded Gai-sensei, at that moment, the Blue Beast of Konoha, the same way he had regarded Lee. Not as an opponent, but as an experiment, like the strongest Taijutsu master in the village had been nothing but another stepping stone. Another measurement of Sasuke's growth, of his revenge.
Lee's hands clenched the blanket covering his legs so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
He's my age.
My age... and stronger than Gai-sensei. Stronger than me. Stronger than all of us.
"That is exactly correct."
Neji's voice broke Lee out of his thoughts as everyone turned to face him.
"What?"
"I believe," Neji added, voice lowering just a fraction, "that he wasn't simply displaying power - he was learning how to use it."
Tenten stared at him in confusion. Ino voiced it. "Again, what?"
He folded his arms across his chest, his stance thoughtful.
"I stood back, at first," Neji admitted, his gaze distant, slipping into the memory. "When Gai-sensei, Lee, and Haruno-san engaged him, I didn't rush in immediately. I observed - I watched, to get a better idea of him, his strength - how powerful he was with that chakra potency."
He remembered it vividly, the way Sasuke had moved, almost lazily, parrying and countering with ease, barely using any serious amounts of that monstrous chakra at all. And when he did use it... It was frightening in its precision.
"He was testing himself," Team 9's Jonin said, his voice growing more certain. "I could see it from my position with my Byakugan. Every step he took, every punch, every strike, every kick he parried... it was all after many thoughts - many, many quick thoughts. His blows were calculated, all of them. He was gauging how much force he needed to put down an opponent without killing them. He wasn't fighting to win - much as he did win - he was fighting to learn."
His arms tightened across his chest.
"I only joined when he disabled Haruno-san with a lightning technique. I thought—" he shook his head once, bitterly, "—I thought that perhaps it was a chance. That if I struck swiftly enough, fast enough, I could turn the tide, I could make a difference. But even then... even then, I knew."
It burned, the next words tasted like hot coal on his tongue.
"Our fight wasn't a battle to him. It was research."
A cold, uncomfortable shiver passed through the room.
"Lee," Neji said quietly. "You were... partially right. He didn't enjoy it, but he was exploring. To him, it was, indeed, training - a sparring match, to see how far he could go."
Lee's head dropped, fists still trembling.
Neji turned his gaze toward Naruto and Shikamaru. "That's why I believe Orochimaru had nothing to do with our fight. He wasn't fighting like a puppet. He wasn't a possessed body with someone else pulling the strings - his actions were completely his own."
He inclined his head.
"Of course, there are other shards of evidence. For one, the lack of cruelty."
"The other, more obvious one is chakra - his chakra signature confirmed it. I felt it clearly during the battle. Even though it was vastly stronger - almost immeasurably so - it was still him. The same chakra I saw with my eyes during the Chunin Exams, the same flow and rhythm, only now it burned with a colder, heavier pressure - many times more powerful and dense. A stranger's chakra feels foreign, no matter how good they are at concealing it. This... this was Uchiha's. Stronger, yes - but I can say with absolute certainty—"
The Hyuuga prodigy's eyes swept across the room.
"—it was, indeed, Uchiha Sasuke."
An uncomfortable silence settled over the room as Neji's final words echoed against the sterile hospital walls.
Three years.
That was all it had been. Three years since Sasuke had left the village. Since they had all last seen him fight seriously, since they had last seen the boy who stood among them as a genin, who had once struggled with Kakashi's bell test, who had lost to Lee in the Chunin Exams. That level of strength... in three years! The same thought seemed to echo in everyone's mind. It wasn't possible. It shouldn't have been possible.
But the proof was there.
How could anyone progress to that level in such a short time? Their old classmate had now had such terrifying strength that could he could defeat a team of Konoha's finest without even trying, toying with them as though they were training dummies. He had the strength that had overwhelmed Gai-sensei, a man who had thrown his body through a blender daily, for decades, and opened the Seventh Gate, the same technique that could break boulders with the sheer force of its wind. And yet, even that had amounted to nothing. Based on Gai-sensei's report, Sasuke hadn't even seemed interested. He hadn't fought them as enemies to be eliminated, or as threats to be extinguished—just obstacles. Inconveniences. He had power so vast that all their efforts, their most desperate teamwork and resolve, had been reduced to nothing more than background noise in a battle they had no chance of ever winning.
The silence stretched, thick and taut.
"You are assuming the chakra signature is absolute proof."
Half of the room jumped.
Several heads whipped around. It was Shino, arms crossed, posture stiff as always. The bug user stood quietly against the far wall, arms crossed, eyes hidden behind his shades.
He looked thoroughly unimpressed.
"I've been here the entire time."
Everyone suddenly looked anywhere but at him, a wave of poorly concealed guilt rippling through them. They had actually forgotten he was in the room. Still miffed, Shino pushed off the wall and stepped into the center of the circle, forcing the occupants to face him sheepishly.
"I will admit, Neji's logic is sound. However..." He adjusted his glasses with a hand. "You're all forgetting something important."
"There is still a possibility that has not been accounted for." His shades glinted slightly as he raised his head. "I would remind you all that during the Sand invasion three years ago, no one recognized Orochimaru when he attacked our village - not the Hyuuga, not the Aburame, nor the Inuzuka. None of our clan's sensory techniques perceived him. Not even the sensory specialists of the Leaf realized it until it was far too late. If Orochimaru's body possession technique is perfect - and there is no reason to assume it is not - it is possible that he could mimic not only a host's appearance but also their chakra signature. Down to the finest detail."
The humor drained from the room in an instant.
"Uchiha Sasuke's chakra—" he paused, letting the words sink in, "—could very well be preserved. Especially if maintaining the identity is important for deception." Shino's gaze, unreadable behind his shades, rested on Neji. "Your observations are sound. But it could still be Orochimaru - I would not disregard it."
The words landed like a brick, and the conclusion like a thunderclap.
It could still be Orochimaru.
Sasuke… might already be dead.
That was a much, much worse possibility. That was worse than any of them had dared to voice.
Such power, if it belonged not to Sasuke, but to Orochimaru inhabiting his body…
It was a disaster of immeasurable proportions.
"No."
All eyes turned toward the blonde-haired shinobi.
Naruto's hands curled into fists at his sides, trembling. His head dropped, hair shadowing his eyes.
"No..." he growled again, voice low but shaking with intensity. "You're wrong. You're all wrong."
He slammed his fist down against the side of Lee's hospital bed with a loud CRACK, making everyone flinch.
"Sasuke's not dead. He's not dead! You guys said that - He said that in front of you! I don't care about whatever theories Shino comes up with, but I heard Granny Tsunade, and she - she told me Sasuke killed him - Sasuke killed Orochimaru! I'm sure of it!"
Sakura, seeing Shino justifiably angry, chose to intervene before anyone else could respond.
"It wasn't Orochimaru," she said firmly, her eyes wide and glistening. She shook her head, almost violently, fists balled up at her sides. "It can't be."
She pushed herself to her feet.
"That wasn't a stranger fighting us." Her breathing hitched, but she pressed on. "That was Sasuke-kun. I know it - I saw it! His eyes - his face - he knew us! He recognized us! He didn't look at us like we were random enemies, like random shinobi - tools or experiments. He looked at us like..." Her throat tightened. "Like he remembered."
She blinked hard, fighting the wetness gathering in her eyes. "Orochimaru wouldn't have seen us like that. Sasuke knew. Sasuke... was still there."
Kiba scoffed from his position near the wall, arms crossed tightly over his chest.
"Oh? And how exactly do you know that?"
He pushed off the wall with a grunt, stepping forward.
"After what Shino just said, I agree. That power level? There's just no way... and... we all saw him, Sakura. You think we didn't notice? He wasn't fighting like he cared about us. Old teammates? Pssh - he was looking at us like we were lab rats! To test the limits of his abilities. Look, I agree a little bit with Neji and a little with Shino. He was using us as a measuring stick. With all these theories, I'm thinkin', he was seeing how strong his new host body was."
Sakura opened her mouth and then closed it. She swallowed hard, hands trembling slightly at her sides.
"I..."
Kiba's glare sharpened. "You knew it too, didn't you? Unless there's something more you've got to share?"
Sakura shook her head quickly, too quickly. "I just... I know it was him," she said, voice cracking. "I felt it. That's all."
But that wasn't the full truth. Not even remotely close to it.
"I have no reason to like you, nor do you have any reason to like me other than this unnecessary obsession of yours."
She sat down on the bed again, gripping her skirt tightly, nails digging into the fabric. She didn't trust her body to keep upright.
She had intentionally omitted that from her mission report. She hadn't been able to write it down, hadn't been able to bring herself to stain the parchment with those words. She was never going to mention this to anyone, not to Lady Tsunade, not to the others. The report had no information about the end of their fight, the moment when she had fallen to her knees, exhausted, when her punches, her poisons, her training, all of it had been useless against him. When she had begged him, begged him to come home.
The worst part was that Sasuke had listened. Not with kindness, of course, but brutal, chilling rejection.
"So, stop your whining… your begging and get over this worthless, pathetic goal. Get over me."
Orochimaru would never have said that. Not in a million years. That had been personal.
She blinked hard again, willing the burning in her eyes to stay hidden.
It stung. It still stung, worse than any broken bone or seared muscle. It stung now, even worse than it had that day.
It wasn't just the rejection. It was how much he had changed, how much he had been influenced by the Konoha's most wanted. It was knowing how far gone he was, to know that the boy she had loved so fiercely, so blindly, the boy she had trained years to catch up to, to save, had looked her dead in the eye and told her she was meaningless, that she wasn't even worth his time. He had gone so deep into the dark that he couldn't see her, not as a comrade, not as a teammate, not even as someone who might be able to help him. But just... nothing. He had told her to get over it, like it was some simple matter, like he couldn't see the pain she was trying to relieve him from. How far had he gone that he was unable to see the help she could give him?
And yet, through the rejection that carved fresh wounds into her heart even now, she knew.
She clenched her fists and raised her chin slightly.
That had been Sasuke. Her Sasuke.
"I know it was Sasuke."
A heavy silence settled over the room again.
Sakura's glared at them all, daring anyone to argue.
Kiba just looked away with a quiet grumble.
Finally, with a long, exasperated sigh, Shikamaru spoke, arms crossed loosely over his chest. "Troublesome." His tone was lazy, but his eyes were sharp, flicking between Neji, Shino, and Sakura. "Look, arguing about whether it was Sasuke or Orochimaru gets us nowhere. Both sides make sense. Neji's right - whoever fought you was testing themselves, to see how they compared to us."
Neji nodded slightly in agreement, arms folded.
"But…" Shikamaru continued, "Shino does have a point, too. The strength gap - that much progress in three years - is unnatural. Even with all the talent in the world, it takes time to build strength properly. Three years isn't enough to jump from 'barely matching Lee and Gaara' to beating a Seventh Gate opener and a full team with ease. So, there's a very real possibility Orochimaru is the one under the body, and personally? I'm inclined to agree with that view. But then again, maybe he didn't take over Sasuke. He could've enhanced him or manipulated him into something else entirely. Sasuke's been with him for three years, completely in the dark from our intelligence. I won't look over this option either."
He tilted his head back, staring at the ceiling as though trying to see through it to the sky beyond. "Either way, debating it is pointless... it doesn't matter."
That got a few surprised looks.
"It doesn't?" Ino asked, incredulous.
"No," Shikamaru replied calmly. "Because whether it's Orochimaru, Sasuke, or someone - or something - else entirely, the Hidden Leaf now has a new, glaringly powerful enemy. That's the fact. And that's what we need to focus on. We're all behind. Far behind, so far behind that it's not even funny. If we don't get stronger, we won't last another fight like the last one you guys had. End of story."
His gaze swept across the room, sharp and cold. "So stop arguing about who it was and start thinking about how to face them."
Naruto's fists clenched again, but this time it wasn't out of frustration. It was something heavier.
"No."
Shikamaru frowned. "No?"
"No - yes? No - I mean... I agree," Naruto stumbled over his words before gathering himself. "We all need to get stronger. I'm not saying we shouldn't." He lifted his head, blue eyes burning with determination. "But when it comes to Sasuke - leave that to me." His hands curled into fists at his sides. "I promised. No matter what, I'll be the one to bring him back."
"Just like last time, you'll handle him?" Kiba snorted derisively. "Don't be an idiot, Naruto - that's not how it works. You think this is about friendship now?! You saw what he did to us! He's not your buddy anymore! He's not even the same guy you used to know!"
"He didn't try to kill you - he left you alive and as I said, leave it to me!" Naruto snapped, cutting him off. His voice was louder than it should have been in a hospital room. "I'm not letting anyone else fight him. Not again."
Before Kiba, or anyone, could reply, Naruto spun on his heel and strode toward the door, shoulders tense.
"Wait - where do you think you're going?" Sakura called after him.
"Training." He didn't stop or look back. "If Sasuke's that strong, I'll just have to get stronger."
"Oi, get back here—!"
The door slammed shut behind him.
Kiba growled lowly, turning to the others for support. "We can't just let him—!"
Shikamaru sighed again, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Let him cool off," he muttered. "There's no winning an argument with him. Not today."