Chapter 81 - Ren and Sasuke

As Ren took another turns to the right, he meet once again with a group of Orochimaru's subordinate, but he easily took care of them and went on searching for Sasuke.

'Hope that Peri can find Kabuto and that my message didn't come too late, but now I have to deal with Emo-boy, from what I know of him, Sasuke decided to sever all ties to his village in a single-minded pursuit of power, leaving Konoha to focus solely on himself, so focused on vengeance, he willingly accepted Orochimaru's offer of power, seeking out the Sannin to train Sasuke in all he knew, even allowing Orochimaru to experiment on him despite knowing the man was using him for his own gain, but he is too prideful and think that letting himself be used by Orochimaru would be a disgrace to his clan, so he is ready to betray Orochimaru at any given moment'.

Then with his spiritual sense Ren felt a somewhat familiar presence even if colder and darker, then the one he remember, so without hesitation he move toward it.

He soon reach a big hall with a statute of a gigantic snake coiled up with candles in its eyes, and in front of said statue there is Sasuke, he wears dark blue pants, over which hangs a blue cloth that covers him from his stomach to his knees, which he secures with a purple rope belt, he complements this with a white long-sleeved shirt kept open at the torso and black arm guards that cover his forearms, and a katana on his waist.

As soon as Ren saw Sasuke, he raise his hand and greet him "Yoh Sasuke! Long time no see, how have you been? Dark mood and depressed or angry teenage boy with long sullen silence, followed by mean comments, followed by more silence"

Sasuke look at the intruder for a few seconds in silence then he says "Haruno Ren...huh....so did you come here to bring me back to Konoha in your sister's stead?" and Ren replies "No, I know that before fighting Itachi, you won't listen to anyone, so I'm here to offer you some help, and in exchange you'll work for me to make this world a better place"

Sasuke hearing Ren stood up activated his Sharingan and said "How can a nobody like you help me?" and he wanted to use the Genjutsu Sharingan on him, but Sasuke soon noticed that he lost Ren, then he felt something tap him on the back of his neck, and felt a strange sensation of relief washing over him, he felt free, then he heard Ren's voice coming from behind that said "Simple, I'm stronger than you, Orochimaru and even Itachi isn't my opponent"

Then Sasuke distance himself from Ren and asked "What did you do?" while thinking 'Even with Sharingan on, I lost sight of him, how is this possible? He appeared behind me and tapped me with his sword handle and I didn't notice anything until it happened, and he says that he is stronger than Itachi how does he know that?'

"I just removed Orochimaru Chakra and piece of soul from your cursed mark, so he won't be able to control it and revive from it, but you can still use the Sage Transformation if you want" replied Ren.

Then Ren continues "What do you say? I help you with your fight with Itachi, and after that you work with me, to take care of other people like him and Orochimaru, and some others that only want to spread evil in this world, and by the way can you stop trying to put me under genjutsu, it is ineffective, but still annoying..."

Hearing that Sasuke replies "Then show me, your so called strength" and run toward Ren with his katana draw, and next attacked him with a series of slash, but Ren is easily able to evade all the blow with minimal movement, but that was only faint from Sasuke, who then used the power of the cursed seal to activate the Sage Transformation, his skin turn dark, his hair lengthens, and causes him to develop wings.

He then use the wings to boost his jump and from high in the air he use the Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique), expelling from his mouth a big ball of fire that was moving fast towards Ren.

Seeing that Ren that until now did nothing but evade attacks, put his hand on the still sheathed Senbonzakura and took an Iai stance, then he said "Let me show you some real kenjutsu...Hitotsume (The First)"

And very fast, so fast that even Sasuke with his Three Tomoe Sharingan was only able to see the initial movement, Ren draw his Zanpakuto and makes a cut, a precision cut of extreme force and speed which casually slice through the big fire ball, cut off Sasuke's wings, and cut the ceiling, then Ren still in his Iai stance "Nadegiri (Killing Stroke)".

As soon as his words were heard the effect of his cut appeared, the fireball was cut in half and soon dissipated, Sasuke screamed in pain and fell from the sky but was able to balance himself and land on his feet, but he reverted to his basic form, and a huge cut was seen on the ceiling, and the blue sky and sunlight can be seen from it.

Sasuke shocked by what just happened is just staring a the cut on the ceiling while thinking 'What the hell was that? Is this something that you can do with only Kenjutsu? He could have easily killed me, even with my Sharingan on, I didn't see how did he cut me, and he clearly aimed at my wings...and he is still going easy on me...is all the things I did, and the sacrifices I made for nothing? Should I have listened to Itachi and killed Naruto to obtain the Sharingan forbidden power? No, I won't give that guy the satisfaction, I will kill him my way...'

Sasuke thoughts were interrupted by Ren's shadow covering him then he once again heard him say "So is this enough proof that I can help you, I already showed that I'm stronger than you, and if you join my team you will soon see us killing Orochimaru, trust me when I say this you are strong, and you can maybe defeat Itachi, but Itachi isn't the ceiling you have to aim for and surpass, there are stronger people in this world, like the leader of the organization your brother is member, or the legendary figure of Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha, or me..."

As Sasuke was thinking about Ren's words, the whole hideout started shaking, and then Sasuke heard Ren say "Uhm... it seems that Dosu found Orochimaru and started his revenge on him..." then Sasuke stood up and says "Okay for now I'll join you and after I deal with Itachi we will see..." and Ren "Good to have you on board"