The stone steps spiraled downward into the dim lair, torches flickering weakly against the damp walls. The air was thick with silence, broken only by two sets of footsteps.
From above, Itachi descended with calm precision, every step silent, calculated. From below, Orochimaru ascended, his golden eyes gleaming with hunger, his smile stretching unnaturally wide.
When they crossed paths in the narrow stairway, the air seemed to crackle with tension.
Orochimaru licked his lips, voice dripping with obsession.
"Itachi Uchiha… your eyes, your body—you are my perfect vessel."
With a sudden snap, snakes burst from his sleeves, their scales gleaming as they lunged forward to bind Itachi. Their hiss echoed off the stone walls like a chorus of doom.
But the boy's crimson eyes spun, and in that instant, Orochimaru's reality shattered.
The lair dissolved. The walls melted. The snakes vanished into nothingness. Chains of illusion coiled around the sannin, pinning him.
His smirk faltered. His breath caught.
"What… impossible, did i got trapped in paralysis genjustu?"
He muttered under his breath, awe and venom entwined:
"What a remarkable visual prowess…"
His hands twitched, chakra flaring as he tried to shatter the genjutsu, but Itachi's gaze tightened its grip.
A flash of steel cut through the illusion.
Itachi's kunai slashed clean and merciless, severing Orochimaru's arm. The limb dropped, blood splattering the steps, snakes writhing from the stump before collapsing dead.
The boy's voice was cold, unshaken:
"Orochimaru, try every jutsus you have! All of your jutsu… are meaningless before these eyes."
Orochimaru's teeth clenched, rage boiling. He had underestimated him completely—this boy, this child, was something beyond his grasp.
And then—
Kunai and shuriken sliced through the air toward Itachi. With effortless grace, he shifted aside, steel clattering harmlessly to the floor.
A silver-haired youth appeared in the torchlight, glasses glinting. Kabuto. His movements were sharp, precise, but his voice trembled with urgency.
"Lord Orochimaru!"
He darted forward, catching the weakened sannin under the shoulder. His eyes flicked briefly to Itachi—an abyss of red staring back—but he didn't falter.
"Retreat," Kabuto hissed, straining to pull Orochimaru back. "Now!"
Orochimaru's glare lingered on Itachi, filled with venom, obsession, and a promise of vengeance.
Itachi didn't pursue. He only lowered his blade, silent and watchful, as the serpent and his shield disappeared into shadow.
---
### **The Akatsuki Meeting**
The next day,flames lit the vast cavern where the Akatsuki gathered through their projection technique. One by one, ghostly figures shimmered into existence, seated upon towering fingers of the monstrous Gedo Statue.
Pain's ripple-patterned eyes swept over them all, his tone calm but iron-edged.
"Orochimaru has deserted the organization. He sought a vessel among us, but failed."
Konan's paper wings rustled faintly in the gloom. Kakuzu's grunt echoed like gravel sliding down stone. Sasori remained motionless, puppet-like, his silence heavier than words.
Itachi stood with eyes closed, impassive, revealing nothing.
Pain's gaze hardened. "Let this betrayal be a reminder. Power without loyalty is weakness. We will move forward without him."
The meeting dissolved one by one, shadows vanishing into the void.
---
The cavern was still. A pool of silence that pressed in on itself, suffocating, broken only by the faint sound of dripping water echoing in the distance.
Black Zetsu and White Zetsu rose from the stone like oil and bone splitting from the earth. Their voices carried like whispers meant for no human ear.
White Zetsu chuckled, a hollow, distorted sound.
"Just like Madara said… even a legendary sannin like Orochimaru cannot measure up to Itachi Uchiha. He looked like prey caught in the talons of a hawk."
Black Zetsu's tone slithered lower, almost blending with the darkness itself.
"Yes… Orochimaru reached for those eyes, and was humbled. A reminder… there are predators in this world, and there are those who only think themselves predators."
The cavern stirred.
A figure stepped from the shadows, tall, cloaked, his mask gleaming faintly in the flicker of hidden firelight. He said nothing, yet the air seemed to warp around him, as if the very space bent beneath his will. The oppressive weight of his presence bled into every corner of the chamber—cold, suffocating, ancient.
White Zetsu fell quiet. Even his easy smile seemed to shrink under the invisible pressure.
Black Zetsu's voice lowered further, almost reverent.
"And that boy… Itachi. His gaze alone can unmake illusions of power. Dangerous. Perhaps too dangerous, if left unchecked."
The masked figure tilted his head, the silence around him louder than words. It was not the silence of indifference, but of patience—of a hunter waiting for prey to step into its snare.
Neither Zetsu spoke again. They slipped back into the stone, swallowed whole by the earth. The chamber was left with nothing but the figure's aura, lingering like a grave that would never close.
---
### **Hidden Sanctuary**
Far from that place, deeper underground where torchlight painted the walls with writhing shadows, Orochimaru sat slumped upon a jagged throne of stone. His severed arm was tightly bandaged, blood seeping through the wrappings, staining his pale skin. His breathing was uneven, but his golden eyes… they burned hotter than fire, sharper than blades.
Kabuto stood near, silent, hands folded, the dutiful servant. He had seen his master furious before, but never like this.
Orochimaru's tongue flicked across his lips, slow, deliberate, leaving a slick sheen of venom as he whispered to the dark.
"Itachi Uchiha…"
His voice was low, ragged at first, but each word carried deeper, harsher, like venom dripping into water.
"You think you've won. You think those eyes of yours make you untouchable. Hn… but flesh rots. Eyes can be taken. Bodies can be shed. I will crawl through the mud of this world, I will cast aside this vessel, and the next, and the next, until the day your eyes are mine. I will peel them from your skull myself… and I will see the world through their power."
His smile twisted, monstrous, stretched too wide, as if his very face struggled to contain the obsession within.
Kabuto adjusted his glasses, unease flickering in his eyes, but he kept silent. Only once they were alone in the safety of the cavern's depths did he murmur, barely audible:
"Even for you, Lord Orochimaru… trying to play with someone like Itachi Uchiha is reckless."
Orochimaru ignored him, eyes gleaming, unblinking. His vow thickened the air, venomous and suffocating, a promise not of survival, but of obsession so deep it could outlast death itself.
The torches guttered, shadows dancing along the stone walls like snakes coiling endlessly in pursuit of prey.
And in that hidden chamber, Orochimaru's hunger lingered, sharper than the pain of his wound. A serpent that would never stop slithering, no matter how many times its body was severed.
**End of chapter 23**