When the order came to hunt down the kyuubi jinchuuriki, who is also Sasuke´s teammate, Itachi mentally prepared to face his younger brother again since that faithful night. As fate would have it, Sasuke is indeed present during Itachi´s halfhearted attack on Uzumaki. Which has led to the missing-nin having mixed emotions in the current situation as he holds his little brother in his grasp.
On one hand, his brother makes him proud, as he has mastered Chidori and with fine control of it too. A powerful and difficult jutsu for even a sharingan user to master, yet alone to learn. Which speaks well of Sasuke´s skill and potential.
On the other hand, Itachi is also incredible disappointed with his little brother. As he made an incredible loud attack on somebody who is 1, not seemly paying attention and 2, is far, far more powerful when he is. Sasuke KNOWS of the power difference between the two of them. It is both foolish and dangerous in the extreme, the missing-nin easy stopped the attack and now has his brother in his grasp. If it was anybody else, his brother would be dead.
To make matters worse, there is a thing that Itachi cannot ignore, and that is the curse mark on Sasuke´s neck. This abomination, combined with his brother incredible lack of self-control, proves a massive risk to his brother life if not dealt with. Cursing Orochimaru and himself, for not thinking of the possibility that the sage would target his weaker brother. As for a moment, he thinks many a dark thought of what he will do to the snake sage at a later date. When suddenly.
'I have an idea' he thought proudly to himself and the rogue genius smirks to himself in his mind and lessen his hold on his brother, as Sasuke struggles to get away.
"So, brother, this is it? This is youre grand master plan strike at me? That attack was pathetic. You may have learned a useful and dangerous jutsu but is clearly far too arrogant and foolish to use it properly." The only answer the missing-nin gets in response is a more heated, but silent death glare from Sasuke. Uzumaki is keeping silent for now and the toad sage is currently, for now, content to just observe. Most likely as to avoid risk killing the genin in the ensuing fight.
So, Itachi continued.
"I see that Orochimaru have given you one of his cured marks. How fitting for a pathetic worm such as him to seek out a weaker target such as you. In fact, his failed ambushed on myself was just as weak, pathetic, and short lived as your own attempt. I suppose such weakness is to be expected, as you are as weak as the snake" that however, got a reaction from his audience. Jiraiya narrowed his eyes and clearly thinking about the implications but otherwise staying put. Sasuke is in shock and seems far more aware of the power imbalance between the two brothers. Uzumaki´s reaction is however a blessing in disguise for Itachi.
"Wait, you beat Orochimaru?" the questioned from the blond jinchuuriki hanged silently in the air for a moment. But before the rogue Uchiha could tell what happen that day, his partner Kisame beat him to it.
"Yes, Orochimaru were a part of our organization in the past. But he ambushed Itachi for his eyes. The only reason the traitor lives today is that his subordinates saved him before he could be killed" the missing-nin explained, Itachi however did want to put in a last touch on that explanation.
"Indeed, and I was uninjured as I stopped his attack without any real effort, much like your own attempt Sasuke. Now little brother…" Itachi stared right into Sasuke´s eyes and mentally apologized for what he is about to do.
"You clearly still LACK hatred"
________________________________________
The last Uchiha has been in a state of turmoil ever since his encounter with his brother. His own weakness compared to Itachi is in the extreme. To make matters worse, Naruto, his best friend is quickly caching up to him, to the point he might in the near future even surpassed Sasuke and leaving him behind. That fact angered the Uchiha something fierce.
He needed power, FAR more power. The issue is however, where to do find it? Where do he even start to look for it?
'Who do I turn to? Kakashi and the other teachers know many jutsus, they either cannot or will not teach me! There is in way in hell or heaven, Kakashi, the other teachers or the Hokage or her advisors will let me read the scroll of seal either!'
Such dark thoughts and frustrations clouded Sasuke´s mind, together with Itachi´s words and his brother effortless defeating him, only made it worse.
But such state of affairs may have become the new normal for the Uchiha. Alas, he did not have such thoughts at the moment. As he has been ambushed and overwhelmed by the sound four. They gave him a speech of how much power he can gain by joining up with snake sage and how said sage would even personally help him reach greater power still.
Sasuke is not impressed, and it takes some of his self-control not to snort several times during the speech the minions give him. As while the offer is tempting, there is just major problem with it.
'Orochimaru could not even give a single injury to my brother despite ambushing him! What kind of fool would I be to seek power from one, who cannot even do minimal harm to my brother?'
He thought venomously. Sasuke is not stupid enough to say such that out loud while being at the mercy of the Snake´s minions. But like his brother smirked mentally as he got his own idea. He just needed a day.
"Tomorrow" is the only response the Uchiha has for the sound four. He stared into the eyes of the two-headed sound ninja. Sakon and Ukon raised their eyebrows at the answered, before asking.
"Why tomorrow and not right now?" Sasuke did some quick thinking to come up with a believable explanation that would hopefully not be too suspicions for his attackers and make them kidnapped him outright instead.
"My teacher, Hatake Kakashi, have some Uchiha scrolls in his possession. I lent them to him some time ago to hear his thoughts on what jutsus and techniques I should learn first, and maybe allow him to expand his own arsenal of abilities. I need them before I leave Konoha for Orochimaru" the last Uchiha is lying through his teeth, as there is no way he let anybody, not even his teacher, unsupervised by himself have some of the clan scrolls. The sound four did not need to know that fact.
The sound ninja gave one another some looks in a silent conversation. The first person to say anything is the red headed one, Tayuya.
"And what stops you from selling us out to Konoha?"
A defiant glare is Sasuke´s initial reaction, as it is exactly what he will do the moment he gets his chance. Again, however, he is not foolish enough to say it out loud and has the discipline needed to keep his anger at her question contained. Beside he does have a proper answered at the ready.
"Nothing. Much like I have no proof that Orochimaru would not just make me a test subject for some of his infamous experiments or just ripe out my eyes himself, the moment I enter his stronghold" it comes from the Uchiha as he continues to glare at the red head, as a new silence settles for a few moments more.
The two-headed sound ninja, Sakon and Ukon, came to a decision.
"Fine, tomorrow night, here, the same time. We risk a lot for you Uchiha, so whose jutsus of yours better be worth it! As we risk our necks by potentially gaining Orochimaru-sama´s disfavor by delaying" and when they were gone, leaving only fallen leaves and the exhausted Sasuke behind them.
The sharingan wielder went home first, while making sure he was not followed back. After a bit of time, he decided to risk leaving his home and gambled that neither the sound four nor any of their potential allies would know he is going straight to the Hokage tower, there he was sent to the hospital as the Hokage is currently operating on Rock Lee.
Luckily for him, she has just finished her operation, as he found her washing her hands. The kage quickly noticed him as he approached.
"Brat, your friend is in that room, I got no time for you right now. If you want to speak with me, wait until tomorrow" she explains as she stretches her arms and starts to walk towards the door. Sasuke could not wait and need to talk with her now. More annoyingly, he needed to be polite too. He gestures for her to stop.
"Hokage-sama, I am not here for Rock Lee, I need to speak with you as I have been attacked by some of Orochimaru´s ninja and they have given me the offer to defect" as the name Orochimaru came out of his mouth, the Slug sage immediately turned around and he had her full attention.
"Tell me anything"
He did just so.
________________________________________
The Slug sage called an emergence meeting shortly after his explanation afterwards. It included several jonin, the ANBU commander, some clan heads, Ibiki and the elders. Despite the many groups, few are actual present as most ninja is currently on missions at this time. As such, there is no full council, but Tsunade is of the few that it is good enough. There Sasuke would ones more repeat his encounter with the sound four. To say the faces were grim, would be an understatement. The kage lean forward.
"I suppose it was too much to hope that Orochimaru would change focus after his defeats and losses. Uchiha-san did well to warn us. But that still leaves the problem that we still have security breaches. As this state of affairs of the sound ninja continues to enter and leave without alerting anybody and avoid patrols cannot be allowed. Beyond changing patrol schedules, what can we do for now?" she finished and looked at the Nara clan head Nara Shikaku, who luckily was in the village as Tsunade called the meeting.
The Nara followed up right away with a plan.
"We can use this opportunity to capture and interrogate some of the sound ninja. That said, we should prepare in case they bring more ninja with them, as they are not likely to trust Uchiha-san, maybe even a heavy hitter or two in case of ambush. With that in mind, we must make sure we have enough of our own forces on hand. But as most jonin are out on missions, we may need to be more creative, which can be troublesome" Shikamaru´s father explains, and nods to the Hokage as to make clear he is done.
This is where the real discussion started and occasionally debates about one thing or another. In the meantime, Sasuke, to his great irritation, had nothing to do, but wait patiently in silence, outside at having to answer some questions, mostly in regard to the sound ninja he meet. This state of affairs angers him, as he has his own proposal, but not to the ambush itself. As the discussion started to end and the plan for the ambush set. He jumped at the chance.
"I have a request Hokage-sama" the last Uchiha gain the attention of everyone.
"Yes?" Tsunade looks curiously, despite how exhausted she clearly is. Sasuke took a deep breath before he continues.
"I request more personalized training as to better defend myself against future attacks. As it is clear that Orochimaru will not stop targeting me for my sharingan. He will likely continue to do after the sound four has been dealt with" to be clear, no one, absolutely no one is fooled by his excuse. Everyone knows very well that he just wanted power to kill Itachi. That however is not the point of his argument, as it is however, his reasoning is correct. Orochimaru will definitely continue to target the last Uchiha and the prospect of a sharingan wielding Orochimaru is nightmarish in the extreme. Especially as he would definitely return to finish what he failed to do before and crush the village.
"Your request is accepted, but it will have to wait until this situation has dealt with. As we need to find a proper teacher for you and that will take some time. Now any last-minute question or comment? No? When dismissed" As the kage rise from her seat, she notices that the Uchiha is satisfied and everyone left the room, either to sleep or to work some more.
________________________________________
As expected, the ambush was a success, despite the surprising presence of a surviving member of the Kaguya clan from Kiri. There were also some chunin sound ninja as support. But the gathering of Konoha jonin and ANBU, supported by the Lady Hokage herself, made it so that it was a one-sided fight in the favor of Konoha.
No one save the Kaguya died as Tsunade made sure that no one would die if it could be avoided. She also denies that she is doing this just so as to get some free punching bags to unleash her anger on, as she has not had neither the proper place or time to get a proper drink because of the Sound´s actions.
On another note, most of the Konoha ninja more or less just watched from the side lines as they were treated to a borderline slapstick fight between the kage and the sound ninja. As only the Kaguya died as his bad health could not withstand the punishment from the (totally not) angry Holage, that meant the rest were taken in by the not so tender mercy of Ibiki and the rest of the T&I.
Be the end of the week, team 7 was disbanded, Tsunade and Jiraiya would personally train Sakura and Naruto respectively. Which admittedly angered Sasuke as he got informed, but he would personally train by Kakashi and at times the other team jonin teachers.
Orchimaru for his part, were forced to postpone any and all attempts against Sasuke. As a mix between increasingly more devastating strikes from Konoha, using the information and momentum gained from the sound losing so many of its elite fighter which forced the snake sage to focus more on his war with Konoha. But the primary reason was Itachi, as he made it absolutely clear to Orochimaru, that if he ever threatens Itachi´s own plans in regard to Sasuke again, the rogue Uchiha would kill the sage. A threat that he eventually followed through as the snake could not stop himself after seeing a chance and Itachi burned the sage to death.
Sasuke for his part, did grow both as a ninja and as a person. His power grew as he had teachers who actually cared and still had access to his clans scrolls, which Kakashi could help the Uchiha learn.
He also came to gain a new level of appreciation of his friends and Konoha. This continued even after Tobi revealed the truth of his clan´s death after he finally defeated his brother, and the Uchiha just focused his hatred on Danzo and the elders. A revenge he gained after doing some digging into the trios' shady dealings and they're at times skirting very close to treason one too many times.
In the end, Sasuke found his own path, like always.