Chapter 14

I'm on a roll, three chapters finished within a week, hooray!

Also, for anyone wondering, I do sometimes go a little bit...insane with myself, so if the start of chapter 13 confused you...I have about as many clues as to my own thought process as you all do!

Now, before AAAAAANY of you all get annoyed at my decision for who went through the portal, I've deliberately added my reasoning at the bottom of the reveal section. If it annoys you and you want to say it's dumb and not read the story, just have a look at my explanation and you'll see why I had them go through.

Chapter 14

Blinking, Akari got up, having somehow ended up laying down, and looked around, shivering lightly.

Her surroundings were not anything like the lush green forests of Konoha. Instead of a landscape teeming with shrubs and life, it was a desolate wasteland of snow, rocky crags, dead trees and just, in general, a miserable time. It...honestly looked a little like the Land of Iron with its mountains and snow. What was worse though was the fact that it was absolutely freezing. Tetsu no Kuni was cold, but it had absolutely nothing on the frost-bitten winds and icy ground she was now stood upon. Circulating a little fire chakra throughout her body helped mitigate the risk of frostbite, but it was still noticeably chilly.

Looking down at the snow around her, Akari frowned. She knew, for her eyes didn't lie to her, that she'd seen a piece of fabric disappear into the rift before the inky darkness obscured it completely. But, looking around at the thick layer of snow, there was no evidence of someone being recently in the area. None of the snow was disturbed.

A tearing sound suddenly interrupted her, bringing Akari about to see the rent in reality fluctuating as the top and bottom stretched out widely before sling-shotting closed, snapping the entire thing closed, a whip-cracking sound marking the event as air blasted into the space the hole once occupied. "Fuck..." Akari muttered, looking at the empty air. She knew, looking at the other side, that the portal was soon to close, but she hoped that she'd find whoever came through stood surprised on the other side so she could just snatch them and run back through before it closed.

"It stand to reason that you would be the one to create this." Whipping her head around, one hand already fisted around the handle of a Kunai, Akari looked up into a tree to see someone she was not expecting. Clad in his jonin vest, crouched atop a branch and peering at her with slitted golden eyes, was none other than the Sannin himself, Orochimaru.

"Are you fucking kidding me? W-" Akari rubbed her face. "Why the fuck did you go through that rift?" The sannin waved a hand around, his eyes never leaving Akari's.

"Because you are the first to ever make a rift capable of travelling to another world entirely. In the few hours I've been here, using some simple experiments, I at first ascertained that I was in a wide-area jutsu which affects basic principles of our world such as gravity, air resistance, and the like. But then I turned my eyes skyward." He flicked his gaze up, to which Akari did the same, shrugging when after a few seconds all she saw was stars. "Are you really so foolish child?"

Frowning, Akari crossed her arms. "Look, I don't spend nearly as much time stargazing as I do travelling, killing people, and looking after brats, so get to the fucking point snake-eyes." Ignoring the insult, Orochimaru jumped from his perch, landing beside Akari without disturbing the snow. Looking down for a brief moment, she saw that he was using the same technique for the walking on...water. "Okay, I'll give you that, not realizing I could do that was...admittedly, pretty foolish."

Snow is water but in a solid form. As such, using a more refined version of the water-walking technique would allow someone to traverse the snow without disturbing it. Akari had never had to deal with snow since going to the Land of Iron 5 years ago, and she didn't have a jonin to tell her in case she ever did need to go into a snowy country, so she didn't know. "While it amuses me for you to admit such a thing, that is not the only thing you should be more aware of."

Pointing out several stars, the Sannin looked down at Akari. "That is the Cresting constellation. Right there is the Lavra. The Vulpes Twins." His finger wandered around the sky as he pointed out various constellations, to which Akari nodded along and made thoughtful noises. After a minute he frowned. "You don't get it to do you?" With a grin, Akari shook her head. "Whelp." Growling, Akari pointed a finger up at the sky.

"Listen snake-fucker, as I said, I don't spend my days looking up at the skies when I need to be focused on the ground, the here and now, y'know?" Pointing out a line of stars, Akari snapped her fingers. "Oh wow, it's the line-constellation of who gives a shit. Now please, what exactly am I missing here which is so groundbreaking?"

Hissing his disapproval, Orochimaru shook his head. "Fool. Fine. These constellations are in the wrong place. Many of the ones I have observed are not even visible in any recognizable shape." Akari just gave him a blank look. "We are on another planet entirely!" Shrugging, Akari waved her hand around.

"Yeah, I get that." Orochimaru face-faulted, looking at Akari with surprise. "I mean, I am the one who made the rift, I knew it was going to take me to another world. I would have liked to have gotten more time to make sure I can actually, y'know, get us home, but hey, you want to waltz right into a tear in reality, be my guest. On that note, why the hell did you do that?"

With a nonchalant wave of his hand, the snake sannin began walking away. "I have a way home. Unfortunately for you, it requires an anchor in our world, one which you do not have. As such, while I can return to our world, you are, unfortunately, trapped here. That is, if you are unable to open another...'rift'." He left unsaid that it means her Sharingan eyes were also trapped in this new world, but there were plenty of other, more available targets to trick and steal from.

"Wait, hang on a second." Akari went back mentally through their conversation. "Did you just say 'hours'?" Now it was Orochimaru's turn to be surprised, looking at Akari closely. "Because I saw the tail-end of your vest disappear into the rift only a few seconds before I went through myself." Peering closely at her, the sannin ascertained that she wasn't trying to trick him, leaning back with a grin on his face.

"Fascinating."

So, Orochimaru.

Now now, before you all get annoyed, hear me out. He had safeguards. Firstly, he sent a clone through first to check the area out, so he knew he could survive standing there. Secondly, he already has several individuals in his labs who have cursed seals, and as such his subordinates out in places beyond Konoha could revive him, so even if he were to die, they would be able to bring his consciousness back using said cursed seals. He can also choose to abandon his current body and return to the seal, though it means he can't go back to that body.

I know, I know, it doesn't match the timeline, he shouldn't be able to use the seals in such a way as he hasn't got his teeth into Jugo yet, but screw it, it's my story, and Orochimaru is scary smart, he figured it out early, so there!

Besides, Akari has already met Orochimaru, and dislikes him based on the fact that he pulled her away from healing people during the Third Shinobi War so she could fight. He dislikes her because she holds absolutely no respect for him, calling him Snake-Face and a 'Has-been Shinobi'.

There is more to this chapter, I wanted to add this before anyone gets angry and starts ranting about how Orochimaru shouldn't have been the one 'dumb' enough to have gone through a mysterious rift in reality. Enjoy the rest of the chapter!

"This flora is fascinating."

Akari was really starting to regret having ever gone through that damn portal. Every ten steps the blasted sannin would see something new and interesting to investigate, like a weirdly-shaped leaf, or a glowing bush of berries. And, every time it happened, he would pull a notepad out and document various things Akari was too bored to care about. More than once she'd looked across their rudimentary camp in the clearing they'd appeared in to find him cross-legged with several vials and containers strewn about, his notepad filled with scribbling she couldn't decipher.

Sure, they were in a new world, cool. Didn't mean he had to literally note down every single thing which was different. Broad strokes man! Of course, she didn't say any of this aloud. While she was confident in her strength, she didn't want to antagonize the sannin, not when he was the only other...set of hands. "Uhh, hey Orochimaru-san?" Her pointed use of the san suffix rather than sama was noticed by the sannin, but her vocal inflection was enough to hold Orochimaru's retort off as he gave her his attention. "Couldn't we have just gotten shadow clones to build the camp and do some scouting?"

The sannin looked at her, then away, then back at her, then away and back a second time, his expression unchanging. "I wonder if perhaps my first assumption was correct and a wide-area jutsu is afflicting us. To not think of such a basic and useful solution to our manpower shortage..." The sannin formed a cross-seal and poofed three shadow clones into existence. "These three will handle scouting of the area. As I seem to be the only one of us documenting our finds I feel my clones will be more useful for finding and recording anomalies."

Rolling her eyes, Akari formed her own cross, two dozen clones appearing. "Cool, I'll just get mine to set up a better camp and hunt some food I guess." Without a word, though a slight grin, at Orochimaru's faintly surprised face, Akari let her clones get to work, half immediately running full-tilt into the forest with Kunai and senbon at hand. The other half began working on the camp the pair had built, which consisted of a lean-to they made to shelter any items they wanted to keep dry, a small camp-fire, and a single tent which Akari had within a ' storage seal'.

She actually had it in her inventory, but she could use seals to explain retrieving a few items. Of course, there was a certain point where suspension of disbelief would stop working, and he'd demand a full inventory of what she was carrying. She couldn't tell him that she was carrying over a hundred swords, several thousand Kunai, even more Senbon, alongside her normal knives, which were still contained within seals on her arms, one of the few things she actually did have sealed, and a bunch of miscellaneous items.

Taking the Subtle Knife out of her inventory, Akari flicked it about in her hand a few times, drawing Orochimaru's eye for a second with the flickering blade before he dismissed her again. Not to be unexpected, since the knife looked pretty plain. At a glance, it certainly didn't look particularly dangerous. She wanted to just cut a hole in reality right then and there, then send a clone through and see if it came back out in Konoha.

But then she'd have to explain to Orochimaru as to just how she managed to find or create a knife which could cut through literal reality in order to create a rift. Right now he was running off the idea that she used some kind of space-time ninjutsu or fuinjutsu, and she hadn't said anything in any way proving him right or wrong. He definitely wanted to know, and didn't seem above violence to get what he wanted, but the fact that she was the only one who knew how she did it stayed his hand. It also helped that he was far too engrossed in his research to care, for the time being at least.

"Oh wow." Akari felt one of her clones disperse, sending back memories of a 6-legged mammal, which looked a little like a panther, except of course for the extra two legs, leaping at its face and biting the clones head off. "We may want to be more careful, there's hostile fauna on the planet." When the sannin raised an eyebrow, she huffed and pulled out a notepad, doodling down a rough sketch of the creature. "That thing just attacked one of my clones."

The sannin took the notepad and committed her drawing to memory, handing the paper back with a hum. "I shall...inform my clones to be wary of such creatures, though I do believe the Forest of Death has far more dangerous fauna." Akari shook her head with a smirk, remembering the few times she'd gone in there. It was a pretty good place to train in tree-hopping and fighting against summoned animals, as typically summons were far larger than regular animals, and as such the creatures in the forest of death were perfect for training to fight against them.

Standing up, Akari cracked her shoulders, looking around and yawning. "Right, well, I'm gonna go get some sleep. The fuinjutsu should tell us if anything comes close, and if not that then the clones, so we probably don't need to set a watch up." Orochimaru waved her off, too busy messing with the plants he had taken samples of to give her more than a very uchiha-esque 'Hn.'

Unzipping the entrance to the tent, Akari threw herself onto her bag and closed her eyes.

As Akari disappeared, Orochimaru's gaze snapped up, a twisted smirk on his face as he put his notepad to the side. This was it. The opportunity to study a Sharingan, with no risk. Nobody to find the body. And, better yet, nobody to interrupt. It was a weakness, he knew, but he oh so loved to see the terror in the eyes of his subjects as they realized the full extent of what they were now trapped within. He never forgot his goal, to forget the frailty of human life and not achieve his purpose of gaining immortality would be unthinkable, but he still allowed himself these small pleasures.

It didn't hurt after all to...indulge every once in a while. And, from what the brat had absent-mindedly remarked, he had a very long time to enjoy himself, as well as learning all the little nuances he could about the famed 'copy-wheel eyes' of the Uchiha. It was a shame that he wouldn't be able to take them back, his Juinjutsu taking just his soul, not his body nor anything he was carrying. As such, even if the girl had some kind of special ability, he wouldn't be able to make use of it, not unless it was something he could torture out of her.

If it was perhaps a hidden secondary Kekkei Genkai of the Uchiha, it would be...regrettable, but at least he would learn of it. Biting his thumb, he silently made the hand seals for the Kuchiyose, summoning a small snake with brown scales and a white strip up his back. He pulled the sword of Kusanagi from his mouth and held it for the snake to inspect before hissing over it, spraying the weapon with his venom.

That particular snake was not one he summoned often, preferring to use his own poisons, but he had access to none of those, so would have to make do. Aiming his blade, he pointed it directly at the tent where the brats legs would be laying and extended the sword, plunging straight through the tent walls and into his target. He retracted the blade and observed it.

A small amount of blood, and very little venom. He smirked. This was going to be fun.

You have rested. Health and Chakra have been fully re-filled. All negative, non-permanent afflictions removed.

Your chakra is bound by a powerful seal. CP total reduced by 99%. CP Regeneration halved.

Blearily blinking her eyes, Akari groaned as she felt something coarse rub against her leg.

Trying to move, she felt the bindings holding her arms behind her back tightly, her hands carefully wrapped to ensure she can't form seals with either one. She slowly attempted to use her stomach muscles to lever herself upright, but spotted the familiar black marks of Fuinjutsu on her midriff, somehow preventing her from getting up. Twisting to get a good look at the location she was in, she noted idly that the stone formations of the cave she was in made absolutely no sense, with sideways speleothems somehow growing out of the walls.

Rolling her head downwards, she observed the stone block she was laying on top of, testing her motions and grimacing when she found herself unable to move more than a few inches in any direction. "Hohoho, as expected of the Crimson Medic and Kyuubi Jinchuriki, already awake." She turned to glare at the sannin who had just entered. "That venom was strong enough to put Jonin on their backs for weeks, yet only eight hours and already awake? Interesting."

Suppressing the urge to somehow magically rip her bindings apart and strangle the treacherous sannin to death, she settled for glaring at him, surreptitiously feeling out the seal on her stomach with what little chakra she could scrape together. The seal was well-written. Not to Kushina or Minato's level, but enough to throw any Fuinjutsu master for a loop trying to remove it.

Pressing a tiny amount of chakra into the seal to begin trying to disarm it, she absently listened as Orochimaru described how he was going to torture her for her Jutsu secrets and everything she knew about the Sharingan before taking her eyes and using them himself to practice. Then, the idiot went on to grand-stand about how he was going to get his hands on a pair of Sharingan back in their world, and how she so sadly wouldn't be able to ever see it, being here, and dead.

He then mused about how he might keep her alive here, a test-subject in a place nobody would ever find, after finding out how she opened the portal in the first place. Of course, the bastard forgot that nearly all of that relied on her actually giving in to whatever inane torture scheme he'd cooked up. Not to toot her own horn, but it wasn't as though she was unused to pain. "You know, you're forgetting one thing here snake-fucker." The sannin glared at her, though she just grinned. "I'm not exactly afraid of pain."

The sannin then smirked, a wide, toothy thing, his eyes glinting malevolently. "Ahh, but you see, you aren't the only shinobi in this world who was used to pain. Torture and Interrogation, however, they have methods which don't rely on such a crude thing as physical pain. As I'm sure you are aware, other methods are far more...applicable. And don't think you can merely break out of here..."

Without warning the speleothems stabbed together, crashing loudly in an explosion of stone, several fragments pelting her body and leaving small cuts. Akari frowned. Surely a Genjutsu would count as a negative and non-permanent affliction, so presumably he just used a Jutsu and tried to trick her...right?

Then, she spotted a mop of bright yellow hair, and huffed. "Orochimaru, do you really think I'm an idiot? Of course that isn't fucking Naruto." His signature laugh pealed through the air, sending a chill down her spine. Naruto, or at least what looked like Naruto, stepped out from behind the stones, his eyes wide and quivering as she looked between her and the sideways stone formations in fear and hope.

"But of course." The stone ruthlessly crushed Naruto's body, sending blood and guts everywhere, startling Akari with how offputtingly...real it was. 'That doesn't mean you don't unconsciously see him as Naruto.' Orochimaru left the trick unsaid, watching with gleaming eyes as Akari peered at the bloody pile of flesh which used to be a facsimile of the boy she'd looked after for years. "This...is just a taste. Now, you can tell me what I wish to know and I will not see a need to continue, or you can be difficult, and, while you will still break eventually, rest assured I will extract my pound of flesh for you wasting my time."

Akari grinned, breaking the bindings on her wrist by sending the minuscule amount of chakra she had into her arms and forming an edge of wind, directly manipulating the chakra to do so and slicing her back something fierce with the uncontrolled wind. She hadn't done very much nature manipulation, instead using regular Jutsu which formed the chakra into the different natures on its own. As such, the chakra was feral and untamed, lashing out every which way before she reverted it to regular chakra.

"Go ahead and try it you bastard." She flexed her arms, small cuts already receding from slashes her uncontrolled wind chakra gave her. She still had to deal with the seal on her stomach holding basically all of her chakra away from her, leaving her with few choices. But...

"Impossible." Orochimaru let his voice slip into true surprise as he met Akari's eyes, which were spiralling black pinwheels, her flower-like crest spinning around in circles as she glared at him. "How have you done this?!" He yelled, pulling the sword of Kusanagi out and glaring straight back at her. It shouldn't have been possible for her to use even the first stage of Sharingan with her chakra sealed, and yet, here she was before him, her Mangekyo spinning away at him despite the seal on her body.

"As someone wise once said..." Orochimaru raised an eyebrow. Was she really about to tell him how she was able to ignore his seal and use her Dojutsu?

"...Fuck you that's how."

I couldn't resist.

There's the revised version. No crossover BS. No stupidity. Just Orochi showing his true colours and Akari revealing that she isn't afraid of taking on a sannin if she has to. And don't worry, Akari isn't going to just bullshit her way out of this, there's a logical plan she has for escaping his clutches. The Sharingan thing I just really wanted to say because it's cool.

She's only going to be off-world for chapter 15, then she'll be back home, I don't plan on keeping her away for long. I realized how bad of an idea it was to even do it, but I kinda...have a fun plan in mind, so instead of re-doing the ending of 13, I'm just doing this instead.

Please, reviews are love, I love reading them.

Now then...I do have a pat reon, but I have no idea what kind of rewards to put on there. If any of you can think of something good to add, please send me a message or leave a review and tell me. I'd LOVE to hear them. So far all I've come up with is putting chapter previews on there. That's kind of...it really.

Till next time!

Name: Akari Uchiha

Level: 48

Age: 15

Experience: 1567/48000

To Next Level: 46433

Title: Crimson Medic - Your exploits on the battlefield as a combat-medic have been noted, and many wonder if you will become equal to the Slug Princess.

Secondary Title: Tokubetsu Jonin - +25% experience gained during solo missions.

Health Points: 6500 - (100 Base + (Vit x End)) x 5

Regeneration Rate - 1200/m - 20/s - Vit x End - Halted when afflicted with bleed status.

Chakra Points: 5000 - (100 Base + (Int x Wis)) x 5

Regeneration Rate - 500/m - 15/s - Int x Wis - Halted when continuous chakra drain Jutsu in use.

Strength - 55

Vitality - 40

Endurance - 30

Intelligence - 30

Agility - 50

Wisdom - 30

Luck - 30

Chakra Nature(s): Fire - Primary, Lightning - Secondary