Btw, here above I put in the picture of the markings I keep describing on Cei's face and sometime's appearing on Sasuke's. The rest of the markings/tattoos on Cei's body (when she's in demi form, the one with black hair) are the same style as that. Now that we've got that cleared up, whoop~~

Enjoy the chapter lovelies~

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I was ripped from my musings by the sudden wave of pain coupled with obvious excitement. My face went slack as I felt Sasuke's emotions run through the space I was in, flooding me. His wry excitement, highlighted by his desire to prove himself while also dominating over others, beating them into the ground, resonated powerfully within the confines of his mindscape. I was slightly shocked.

The waves of violent pain coming from the curse mark had started to come more frequently, this I had noticed, but this was different. This wasn't just his physical suffering I was feeling. I was feeling passionate emotion.

Something's up.

Flaming orbs of purple fire turned towards the darkness beyond the confines of the intricate golden bars. As the cold eyes flashed with an unholy light, the darkness illuminated itself, showing a picture.

Seeing the world through his eyes.

I raised a delicate black eyebrow at the sight that met me. Immediately in front of, evidently, Sasuke's face, was the face of a ninja. And not a good looking one.

The shinobi seemed rather old, maybe around thirty or fourty, one of the rarities in the chunin exams which were dominated by people with real relevance to the plot, such as the rookie 12. Seeing this significantly older ninja with creepy round black circles over his eyes and a black cloth covering the lower half of his face, I couldn't recognize him.

This dude ain't ringing no bells?!

Just a moment later I realized another disturbing thing. Sasuke was lying down. And this middle-aged random dude was on top of him pinning him down. I immediately wanted to retch.

NONONNONONO, bl is great, but this is NOT IT!!!! It's illegal!! Abort mission, ABORT!!!!!

While I was deep in my protesting thoughts, a panicked voice suddenly sounded within the mindscape.

I was a bit surprised.

Didn't know Sasuke could do that... making his voice sound through the entire mindscape?

Maybe its a panic incited reaction?

That thought sobered me up. I did, after all, have a duty that needed fulfilling. I had given my dear cushion a promise.

Looking back at the screen-like thing, I closed my own eyes. What Sasuke was seeing, wasn't enough.

Darkness is my core. Shadows are my faithful servants, as they are a part of me.

I'll let them be my eyes.

Looking at the situation from all corners, a corner of my mouth rose slightly in amusement.

This was already a preliminary match. Since too many people passed the first two exams (we don't even need to discuss thanks to whom), the proctors needed to cut some people off. The third exam, afterall, needed to be showy, since all the important people will be attending. Can't make all those high-ranking foreign and local emissaries watch long winded, boring battles, now can we?

And Sasuke just happened to be lotted to the first preliminary battle. Against a suspicious dude, that was on Kabuto's team.

My smirk widened.

Kabuto's team... fighting Sasuke while the curse-mark is still fresh...

I knew who to look for. My perspective shifted quickly as my sight hopped between different shadows. That is, until I found who I was looking for.

A konoha chunin, tasked with observing the exams. Standing inconspicuously in a corner watching the battle, like the rest of the chunin observers did. But that young, innocent face can't deceive this great ancestor! I'd recognize those sadistic eyes anywhere, no matter color, look or what face they were on.

Why hello there Ororchi~

I was already full on grinning when I opened my eyes back in the darkness of Sasuke's mindscape. Feeling around his body, my memory was jogged. This opponent of his was sucking at his chakra.

Orochi has given his order it seems. So, wanting to force Sasuke to activate the curse mark while giving him a severe bashing in the process, ne~

If he activates his curse-mark the Konoha nin will capture him and lock him up, that's for sure. And Sasuke would never accept losing.

My eyes cooled, becoming serious as I watched through Sasuke's eyes as the nin on top of him smirked while sucking out his chakra. I felt Sasuke growing weaker by the second, as well as the curse-mark feeling his weakness and slowly spreading.

Closing my eyes again, I looked at the smug smirk on Orochi's young, finally normally colored face. The victorious and gloating expression of the ninja on top of Sasuke, slowly sucking him dry. I also noticed Anko, her eyes watching Sasuke intently, fingers twitching to lock the boy up. The third exam proctor, watching, waiting for the Uchiha to break. They were all so certain of the outcome...

My low chuckle filled the darkness.

Such a beautiful opportunity to slap all their faces~

I'll have so much fun this time!

Everyone watched with bated breath as the Uchiha, who had been a crowd favorite and one of the participants to look out for, was slowly overpowered by the much larger shinobi on top of him. The Shinobi's hand glowed blue with chakra where he was grabbing Sasuke by the neck. The Uchiha tried putting up a fight, but his strength was failing him and fast.

A kick there, a jab there. He seemed to be able to throw the bigger shinobi off, but in the end, the blue light at the shinobi's hand would always burn brighter, sucking his strength faster. In the end, Sasuke couldn't break out.

At this time, thoughts were divided.

Sasuke's teammates were watching him with worry. Sakura was holding back tears while Naruto couldn't stop himself, shouting at Sasuke to stop being so pathetic and to get up. The blond didn't know what else to do. He had never seen his teammate in such a weak state before.

Orochimaru, in his temporary disguise, was watching the play with a smirk on his face.

Will you be worthy, Sasuke?

Kakashi watched from a corner, his eyes betraying no expression as his mask covered up the rest of his face. He simply watched, silent, with his book opened in front of him. He seemed detached, but his gaze never left his student. Not for a moment.

The proctors, Gemna, Anko and even Ibiki, were all watching with dead eyes. They were expecting a flare-up, and were all ready to intervene and contain Sasuke at the slightest sign of the curse-mark acting up. They weren't going to let such a threat remain unobserved.

The atmosphere was tense as everyone's eyes were glued on the two ninja on the ground.

Suddenly, the shinobi let out a surprised grunt. Everyone's eyes instantly shot to his hand, the one holding Sasuke by the neck. Their eyes widened in pure shock.

The hand that had earlier been covered by blue chakra, was slowly being covered by something dark. The shinobi was startled and tried letting Sasuke go, but couldn't. Instead of stealing chakra, he suddenly found himself extracting something else, something cold and heavy that wouldn't let him go. The shinobi didn't show it, but deep in his heart a seed of fear had been planted. He had never seen anything like this before.

In fact, nobody had.

Sasuke's eyes, that had briefly closed earlier, opened once more. When their gazes met, the shinobi couldn't stop the tremor that ran through his body. The eyes were the same. Nothing was different. But somehow, the shinobi felt as if he had suddenly changed opponent completely. He was no longer fighting a vengeful, talented genin.

He was fighting a powerful monster that wanted him dead.

Before the shinobi could even react, his arm that was still limply clinging to the Uchiha's neck was grabbed. The heavy dark matter that had ensnared his arm like thick glue was jerked, and the shinobi almost cried out at the immediate feeling of pain. Sasuke stilled slightly, and his emotionless eyes moved slowly towards the shinobi's arm. The young boy's eyebrows rose almost unnoticeably with surprise at the fact that the shinobi's arm was still attached to his body. But the boy wasn't deterred. He simply decided to rip it out for sure with his next attempt.

And he did.

In less than a moment, a fountain of blood sprayed out over the fighting area. Screams and wailing cries were heard in the air still stained in red, the pain in them self evident. The audience was shell shocked. They hadn't expected for such a bloody and gruesome scene to hit them out of the blue. As the spraying blood settled, those in the audience with the stomach for it clamored to the edges of the balconies, looking down over the fighting area.

The older shinobi was wriggling on the ground, crying out in pain as he held onto the stump by his shoulder that used to be connected to an arm. A ways away from him, a young beauty was standing, holding on to the severed limb. The young boy's appearance couldn't help but cause people's hearts to shake.

Standing in the middle of a sea of red, he was like a beautiful blossom. His pale skin stood out from dark colors surrounding him, making him shine to the gorgeous backdrop of vivid red. His black hair was soaked, the rather long strands brushing his exposed collarbones almost teasingly. The rest of his clothing was also soaked, clinging to his well outlined body like sinful temptation. The blood had colored his dark blue shirt black and his white shorts red. His pale skin contrasted beautifully with the drops of dark red blood lingering on his face. Adding to his suddenly outlandish beauty, black markings were running down from the corners of his eyes like tear tracks. As the hooded eyes slightly looked up, the red drops on his eyelashes gleamed enchantingly. No one could escape.

The feeling was overwhelming, but not unfamiliar to everyone present. Because, they had seen someone just like that before.

Someone so beautiful, they defied all reason. So beautiful, it was like the whole world would willingly bow at her very feet, if she only asked.

That was the feeling they were experiencing now. It was a different person, yet the feeling was exactly the same.

The beauty suddenly moved. Step by step, like he had all the time in the world, the Uchiha walked towards the squirming shinobi on the ground. Each step the Uchiha took was elegant, like he was walking on air. No one reacted, even as the boy stopped in front of the wailing shinobi and crouched down. A pale hand reached for the shinobi's neck.

At that moment, the action seemed so beautiful, so enchanting, so innocent. It didn't occur to anybody what it meant.

Or it didn't, until they heard the distinct sound of a neck snapping.

Suddenly, all the observes snapped out of their trance. Instantly sobering up, the proctor of the third exams rushed up to the still crouching Sasuke and the corpse at his feet. Genma reached towards the silent shinobi, checking for his pulse. Feeling nothing, he gave a slight sightand righted himself. On the way, he didn't forget to look at Sasuke.

Sasuke was just looking down at the corpse, his expression uncomprehending. The markings on the Uchiha's face were gone. The aura and heaven defying beauty that had captivated them all before had also disappeared. Admittedly, the Uchiha was beautiful in his own right, but it was nothing when compared to the feeling he had given out moments earlier. Genma was slightly confused, but didn't dare dwell on it. Standing up, he announced the results of the match.

While Sasuke was looking down, still a bit disoriented, Kakashi appeared at his back.

"Good work, kid."

Bending down, the jonin whispered into Sasuke's ear.

"Now come with me. It's time we sealed that curse mark."

Before Sasuke could protest, Kakashi grabbed his arm and led him away. As the two were leaving, all the eyes in the hall were on them.

It was silent in the hall. Everyone was looking at the Uchiha with varying levels of shock, respect and fear.

Anko looked at the back of the young boy, her entire being frozen in shock. Her hand slowly reached for her own curse mark as she looked at the young boy that was slowly yet steadily walking away.

He conquered it... I don't know how, but somehow, he conquered the curse mark. And even while resisting it, he was still that powerful...

Not knowing what to feel, she could do nothing but admit defeat. She had lost to him.

Neji Hyuga and Lee were both looking at Sasuke with slight signs of admiration in their eyes. On the opposite balcony, Gaara's whole body was trembling with excitement at the worthy opponent. Sakura sighed in relief.

Naruto didn't explode out in cheers. The blond's sober gaze simply followed the Uchiha until the giant doors closed behind him, obscuring the view of his blood-drenched back.