I own nothing.

Sasuke has always prided himself on being a quick learner. Even without the aid of the Sharingan he's picked up things quickly. All it takes is being observant and listening with more than just his ears.

Otogakure is a place of silence and quiet death, where if you slide dead down the walls no one will ever know your name. It has in truth two rulers where nearly all see only one, and it doesn't take Sasuke long to know which one to be more wary of.

Orochimaru wants to wear Sasuke's body as a new skin. He makes no attempt to hide it and Sasuke knows he has little to fear from this man. There is no subtlety to Orochimaru at all and no thought to prudence either. Orochimaru trains Sasuke in the use of the Sharingan and his own dark arts in order to make him a more suitable host, but what he's really doing is giving Sasuke all the weapons he needs to keep him out. He won't die with Orochimaru's mind in his body.

There is another that hovers just out of sight in the shadows.

Where Orochimaru is the complete lack of subtlety and utterly candid, Kabuto is all subtlety and lies. In fact, Sasuke can't tell when Kabuto is lying and when he's not, and there's something wrong about that.

There's something wrong about a man who can pretend to be a devoted but untalented Leaf shinobi for nineteen years and then switch masks as though casting off a dead skin.

There's something wrong about a man who can poison one of his comrades without remorse. There are ugly rumors hovering around Kabuto like a black cloud, and nearly all of them surround the circumstances of Kimimaro's death. No one suggests that Kabuto actively poisoned him; then again, no one suggests that he did anything to prevent Kimimaro's decline, either.

There's something wrong about a man Sasuke can't read.

Kabuto is all false smiles and eerie words. He is full of lies with honey-coated venom and secrets with arsenic skins.

He'll swallow Sasuke, if he gets the chance.

This is the one I must be wary of. This is the one I must never pretend to trust.