Orochimaru's Office
"Orochimaru-sama." I pound on the door to his office. "I need a favor."
"What?" His incensed reply doesn't phase me. "I have already found the material you've asked for, it's in the Land of Snow. Do you need further assistance with the sword? I didn't think you were that incompetent to come to me every time you run into an obstacle."
"No. It's something different. Though thank you for finding the material for me, we'll have to talk more about it later." I open the door to his office and walk in. My monsters bring in my captives behind me. "This is much more important."
"What are you doing with two of my shinobi?" Orochimaru eyes them in disdain. He doesn't want to be bothered right now.
I don't care.
"That's part of the favor. I want access to your lab for a few hours." I let a hint of my fury leak into my voice as I look at the trapped shinobi. "These two thought it was a good idea to destroy mine, so they're going to be punished. Severely."
"And why does that require my lab?" Orochimaru's ire is slowly fading. As he learns more about the situation he's growing more curious. "Just flay them somewhere, that should be enough."
"Not to me." I snarl out. "They've set me back weeks on the sword. Not only did they crush every single beaker I had they burned all of my notes. All of my ideas on how to make it, how each part works together. That's not the worst of it, no those parts are relatively easy to do over. The worst part is that they burned the notes that had the beginnings to my ideas on how to structure the seal itself. I have to start from the beginning again."
"Really?" Orochimaru's anger is back but now it's directed at the caught shinobi. "You both are lucky it is not me who is exacting revenge. You would not survive it."
"They're not going to survive mine." I growl out and each shinobi starts leaking tears. I turn away from the disgraces and look at Orochimaru. "You're going to want to be there."
"Oh?" Orochimaru looks pissed off, but under that is a hint of pride. He's glad I'm taking my revenge so severely. I am too, they deserve no less. "And why is that?"
"I'm going to switch their organs one at a time. I want to see how long they can survive." As my words reach Orochimaru an eager grin splits his face. "If I recall correctly you wanted to observe something like this."
"Yes, yes I do. Consider my schedule cleared until we're finished." Orochimaru rises up from his desk and we both exit his office. "Come, we shall make this a bonding experience. Do you know the correct way to peel back skin to expose a chest cavity without the patient going unconscious?"
"I was going to sheer off the skin and keep them awake by letting the Jiongu continuously cause them pain. It has been begging me to let it start since I caught them."
Orochimaru glances at the two test subjects behind us. "Well there are two of them, there's no reason we can't do both."
"You know the human body better than I do, which organ should we start with?" I throw a look over my shoulder at the two test subjects. "I want to make sure they last as long as possible."
"Muscle groups." Orochimaru instantly replies. "It is a good place for you to start so you can get acquainted with the process. If you screw that up it will not shorten their length of usefulness. Once you become more confident we can move to the more fun organs. The kidneys, the liver, the spleen, the stomach and the rest of them."
"I wonder if swapping their hearts will cause them to swap chakra too?"
"We can certainly find out." Orochimaru smiles in joy. "You truly are my child, I don't think I've ever been more proud of you."
With Jiraya and Naruto
"Jiraya-sensei. Please. Can we just go back to Konoha now?" Naruto whines.
"Nope!" Jiraya starts to drool as he's walking towards a specific building. "When I said I was going to visit every brothel on the way back to Konoha I wasn't kidding!"
"Konoha is literally a four hour's run from here!" Naruto shouts! "Please! You can skip one! That's all I'm asking!"
"Hehehehe! Nope!" Jiraya steps into the building and his eyes bug out of his head. "YES! Is the Madam of the house in? I'd like to talk business with her."
"Probably setting up a tab for himself." Naruto mutters in defeat. "We'll be here all night."
"Of course Jiraya-sama!" One of the girls says and struts off to fetch the Madam.
"Why do they all know you on sight?" Naruto whines. "Every damn house we go to they all know you! All of them!"
"Oh that's simple." Jiraya eagerly watches a pair of girls walk by. Only one of them is an employee. "I own them."
"WHAT?! YOU OWN THE GIRLS?!" Naruto shouts in disbelief.
"No! The brothels, I own the brothels!" Jiraya quickly clears up.
"Oh thank Kami!" Naruto sags in relief. "I thought... never mind. But that explains so much."
"Does it?" Jiraya tears his gazes off of the scenery to look at his student. He's hoping that the dense gennin has finally figured out exactly why they come to so many brothels.
"Yeah it's no wonder you never go broke! They all work for you!" Naruto accuses.
"And to think I had hope for you." Jiraya shakes his head. "Have you ever wondered why we visit so many brothels?"
"Because you're a pervert." Naruto deadpans to his sensei. "And I'm not adding in super. You don't deserve the satisfaction."
"One of these days." Jiraya grins to himself. He'll corrupt Naruto eventually. "But no, that's just a bonus. A very nice bonus! Ahem. No, the reason we come here is because I'm a spymaster."
"Huh? What's that got to do with anything?" Naruto scratches his head.
"When enjoying the fruits of the opposite sex – or the same if you swing that way – people tend to be more loose lipped. They're quicker to brag about something to try and impress. You would not believe the things people will say before getting laid. Or during. Or after. And occasionally they say something they shouldn't, they say something that is a secret."
"And once one of the girls hears a secret, they make sure that the person has a fantastic time so they come back and spill even more. Then they come tell me, and once this sorry excuse for a man walks through my door I tell him." The Madam gestures towards one of the private rooms. One with a bed. "So Jiraya, want to mix work and pleasure?"
"Naughty girl!" Jiraya giddily skips over to join the Madam. "Why don't we just do pleasure first then work after? Then pleasure again. And if you're up for it again after that."
"Don't you mean if you're up for it?" The Madam teases as she lets the door swing closed. "You're getting old. I hear men of your age start to have problems."
"Why don't we find out together?"
The door closes much to Naruto's relief.
Hours Later, Alvarcus's Room
I'm laying on my bed and blankly looking upwards. I'm not even under the covers or in pajamas. I'm still in full mission gear. I'm not focused on anything either, I'm not even thinking at all. I'm just laying there. Doing absolutely nothing. Simply letting everything that has happened today sink in.
Hours pass and I don't move. I'm barely breathing and blinking.
"I guess I finally have lost that last shred of humanity." My voice breaks the hours long silence. "I don't even feel bad about my actions. Not one morsel of regret. I enjoyed that. I had fun. So much for that speech to Maiko yesterday, I'm no better than Orochimaru now."
"I wouldn't go that far, you have such potential." An unknown voice says from my couch.
I lazily tilt my head towards whoever has snuck into my room. I can't bring myself to care right now. If they attack me they die. Until then I'm not moving.
The unknown voice belongs to a man. He's wearing an all black cloak with a high collar. He has very short black hair. And an orange spiral mask. The unknown man isn't an unknown at all.
"Hello." I greet him warmly, as if he's an old friend that I haven't seen in years. "Are you here to kill me?"
"Kill you?" He says in mock shock. "No. I've come to see you. Everyone else won't quit talking about you, I've come to judge you myself. You've become quite popular among my group. There's even a betting pool on who will run into you next."
"Oh." That's strange. They shouldn't care about me. "And what do you think of me?"
"You can become great." He confidently says. "But Orochimaru will only get you so far."
"True." Orochimaru will only get me so far because I'm going to kill him. "But he can get me S-rank. That's all I need."
"Of course he can." He spreads out more on my couch, he's lounging like he's at home. "Orochimaru is very skilled himself and the rate that you grow is exceptional. But what do you plan to do once you have achieved S-rank? What then? Kill him and take over Otogakure? Burn the village that branded you a missing nin to the ground? Or will you wander around without purpose? Without direction?"
"I've never really thought about it." This feels like he's recruiting me. That can't possibly be happening. "S-rank has been a dream of mine since I first picked up a kunai. But I've never thought about what I would do next."
"I can offer you a purpose." He is recruiting me. What the hell? "But I won't tell you what it is, you have to pass a test of mine. It's to see if you're worthy of joining my cause. Orochimaru has a ring in his possession. It is a very special ring, one that has 'void' engraved upon a blue signet. Find the ring and make it yours. Wear it upon your left little finger and eventually all will become clear."
How very interesting. Though it was never confirmed or explained I've always thought that the rings were how the Akatsuki had their mass meetings. The rings are all linked together and project an astral image into a specific location to enable long distance communication. They also double as something like a phone, Pain can call anyone wearing the rings and the two of them will be able to hear each other. I think it's how they coordinate themselves so well, they have nearly instantaneous communication. It also explains why the rings didn't matter to Tobi when he took over the Akatsuki, if he wanted to talk to someone he can just teleport to them.
"What if I find my own purpose?"
"Then don't put on the ring." He shrugs in indifference. "I will not force this choice onto you, it's one you have to make yourself. But know this, if you put on the ring before you make your dream a reality I will kill you. I do not allow the weak to join me."
"I won't wear it." My words are spoken with a sense of finality. "I forge my own path in life. I will not bend to your will. I will not bend to anyone's will. Even now I am only using Orochimaru, he has a purpose. Once that purpose is fulfilled he will be discarded like my home village."
"That only makes me want you to join more." The true leader of the Akatsuki says as space itself distorts around him. "You will never see me again unless you wear the ring. I will not waste my time and effort on an asset that will not be profitable."
"Say hello to Kakuzu for me. He's the only one of you that I like." I say as he starts to be sucked into the tear in space. "Although you're the only one who hasn't -"
"Goodbye Muffins."
"FUCK YOU NOW I'M NEVER JOINING!"
He vanishes into the swirl, leaving me alone again.
"So." I say out loud to myself. "That happened."
I've always held the notion that Tobi or Obito or Madara – fuck it he's Tobi for now – would appear before me but I never thought he would do it with an offer to join the Akatsuki. I've always thought it would be because I've messed up and he found out that I know too much about his whole operation and then he'd kill me.
Guess I was wrong?
Instead he wants me to get Orochimaru's ring and wear it myself.
He wants me to join the Akatsuki.