Chapter 1



Emotionless...that was what she was. She never cared what happened to others, nor what happened to herself. Life was not lived, it was taken. Pain was the only way one knew that one was alive, although it gave no satisfaction to one's existence. That was the way that life was and always would be.


She hadn't noticed when the snake brought back his new toy. She didn't really care what that cold monster did with his time nor did she care who came to him and who he killed in his insane bid on immortality. She was here by no will of her own though she would do as she was told. This was her existence (it could not rightly be called a life). This was what she had been born to, and this was how she would die. There was no getting around it, there was no escaping. She had given up on that foolish idea from the start.


After all, who would welcome a monster?


She did not delude herself into thinking that Otogakure would ever accept her. That would be plain lunacy. She did not allow herself to think that even the snake, Orochimaru, would come to be grateful for the work that she did. He owned her; it was as simple as that. She was an object; a machine that did was she was told to do. Nothing more and a very great deal less.


She first took notice of the new toy when she was assigned by the snake to train with him. She was not given the dark youth's name or any such information on him. She was simply told to spar with him, hone the reflexes of his body and help increase his stamina. She was also informed to teach him how to apply certain healing techniques to himself during a battle. Presumably so he could heal himself from the damage she would inflict upon him from the sparring. After all, Kabuto couldn't always look after Orochimaru's toys, no matter what the snake was planning on doing with it.


She did not speak to the youth when he was left in the caves with her. She simply waited until the snake and his pet beetle had left, then sprang at him. He was slightly startled, she was small, and he hadn't been expecting her to lash out at him with such ferocity. She did not attack with anything but her own body. Her arms whipped past his head, barely skimming his hair as he belatedly realized what she was doing. Her legs struck up under where his body was landing, striking him in the chest as he came down, sending him flying into a wall. He recovered and kicked off the wall instead of slamming against it. He responded by throwing kunai in her direction, at least, what used to be her direction. She was behind him in less than a heartbeat, twisting his arms behind his back.


She was holding a log. She didn't smile; academy cadets could use the substitution technique. She dropped the log out of her way and closed her eyes. She could feel the air around her, she could hear his movements.


There was a flurry of movement, ending with the dark youth pinned to the cold ground beneath her, a hand at the base of his skull. She could hear his uneven breathing, he was angry. She could feel the pulse of the curse-mark on his shoulder; it responded to his anger, his rage. She did not flinch as it slowly spread across his body. She did not scream as he abruptly flipped their positions. She looked into swirling red eyes, but felt nothing. She swept her right arm at his outstretched left arm that held her off the ground. He dropped her and blocked, but not quick enough to stop her other arm from grabbing his neck, knocking the air out of him, but not crushing his windpipe. His body went limp, and she dropped him to the floor.


She looked down at the unconscious boy. No matter how old he looked, her instincts told her that he was nothing more than an angry boy. Even in his unconscious state he seemed angry. She did not move to tend to the few wounds that she had inflicted upon him; she didn't even move to cover him to keep him from getting cold. The markings that had spread across his body earlier receded. She sighed; he relied too much on the snake's power.

Chapter 2


"Who are you?"


She did not answer the youth, she merely looked at him. He flinched a little at the dead look in her eyes, though his body did not move at all. He flinched in his eyes, she knew the look. It asked her what had happened. It asked her why she was not alive in her eyes as was every living thing. No matter how hard one's life had been, there was always the look of life in a person's eyes. Her eyes held none of this trait; they were as blank as a corpse's eyes. She did not find amusement in finding this question in his eyes. Amusement was emotion, and there was no place for emotions in her existence.


Silence stretched around them as he dropped his eyes away from hers.


"Fine, don't answer my question. I don't really care."


She did not respond to the annoyance in his voice. It betrayed his emotions, as if he was uncertain about why he was here in this place at all. His eyes were sad and he was still angry. The mark on his shoulder pulsed once again and he cursed. She did not flinch at his language nor at the murderous look that he shot her. She knew that look even better than she knew the one that had been in his eyes before.


He wanted to kill her.


"Why did you come here?"


He flinched away from her and dropped his eyes once again, "That's none of your business."


She continued to look at him, unrelenting. He stared at the ground or the wall, anything but her. Finally, he spoke:


"Are you going to teach me those self-healing jutsus or what?"

Chapter 3


He dodged her punch and kicked at her head. She grabbed his leg and twisted his body onto the ground. He swept his other leg under both of hers, sending them both sprawling to the ground. He landed on top of her with his left hand clasped around her throat, squeezing hard enough to kill, curious to see if she could escape from his hold. She didn't twitch, didn't try to release herself from his hold.


Didn't try to stop him from crushing her windpipe.


She merely stared into his eyes, already dead.


He dropped his hand away from her throat, and stepped away from her. Afraid of what he saw, and afraid of what it showed him. Afraid of what it said about who he was. She did not rise from the ground. She did not move to heal herself, she simply lay there. He did not move to aid her at all; he didn't know what to do. This was the first time that he had actually injured her. He stared as the blood frothed in her mouth, though she did not move to wipe it away. Her eyes, which always seemed dead, shone with an emotion for the first time since he had met her. He didn't know what the emotion was and he wasn't certain that he wanted to find out.


They had been in these caves for several months. She would spar with him; she fought him whenever he felt like and a great many times when he didn't. She taught him jutsus to use to heal himself as she didn't try to help him when he was injured. She did not use the same jutsus on herself, though it never seemed to cause her any trouble during their sparring. She was not easily injured for she was not easily caught.


She swallowed her blood and blinked. So close... Why did he let go? She turned her eyes to him once she had regained her feet. He did not look at her, he didn't speak. He stared at his hands, clenching and unclenching them, as if he had never seen them before. She stared at him, though he did not look at her.


After several minutes, he turned his gaze away from his hands and looked at her. His eyes widened as he saw no sign that she had been injured at all, except for her clothing. Her throat had very nearly been crushed from their sparring earlier. The skin that had been dark with purplish bruises was a smooth, even peach color; as if he had never tried to kill her at all. The only blood on her was dried and flaking off. She had swallowed the blood that had been in her mouth. Her clothing was dirty, but she had no wounds to speak of.


"What are you?" He was startled by the sound of his own voice.


They had not spoken since their first spar when she had knocked him unconscious. When he had awoken, he had asked her who she was. Her only answer had been to ask him why he was here. That question had hurt more than he thought it would. It brought back memories, memories that he had kept trying to bury.


Up until now he had not thought anything about the person left to train him while Orochimaru deemed it unnecessary to train Sasuke himself. They had been living together in this forsaken place and he had not thought about anything except growing stronger, learning the jutsus she taught him without words. Now that he actually thought about it, the only time she had used any chakra was to show him how the healing jutsus worked. She had only fought him using taijutsu, while he had used everything that he had known against her. And this was the first time that he had been able to injure her.


Only she wasn't wounded.


She did not answer the question. She stared into his eyes with her dead ones as if the question hadn't been asked at all. Sweat trickled down his forehead as the silence became, for the first time, deafening.

Chapter 4


"Why did you come here?"


Her question echoed around him, he blinked and looked into her eyes. They were as dead as before. No flicker of emotion ever showed in those amber orbs. He jumped a little; he had never noticed that her eyes were amber. He didn't know anything about what she looked like or what kind of person she was. He didn't look away from her eyes, though he desperately wanted to. Now that he had actually thought about it, he wanted to know more about the person who had been training him for all these months.


He had been alone since coming to Otogakure. Oh, he had been surrounded by the shinobi of this village, sparred with a great deal of them, spent time in meetings with others. It only enhanced the feeling of loneliness that had engulfed him since leaving Konohagakure. Since trying to kill someone he cared about the most. Since he had tried to become like the person he hated the most.


It was his choice to condemn himself to this. There was no room for him to complain about what his life had become.


He didn't want to answer her question. Answering her question would only be admitting to something that he refused to even think about. This was his choice, his decision. He had chosen to become the avenger, throwing away everything that he had gained from his previous life. So why did a part of him ache? Why did a part of him want to leave this place that he had been in for over a year? Why did he feel as if a part of him wanted someone to ease the loneliness that had become his life?


She looked away from his eyes, towards the entrance to the caves, when he didn't answer. He took that opportunity to see what she looked like. Her hair was flame-colored and pulled back into a tail at the base of her skull. Her clothing was a nondescript combination of brown and gray, but styled in an older fashion of ninja. The sleeves did not end at her wrists; they formed gloves over her hands. The pant legs went down to her ankles and continued off as boots without a break in the fabric. Her shirt's collar rounded around her neck in a circle. She had a shuriken holder strapped to her left leg, she was left handed. A katana handle peeked over her left shoulder. Her skin was an even peach color, as nondescript as the rest of her; all he could see of her skin was from her neck up.


The only thing memorable about her was the lack of life in her eyes.


She turned her dead gaze back to his.


"The snake will come today to see how far you have come."

Chapter 5


He ducked as she kicked out, grabbing her leg and flinging her into the cavern wall. She flipped in the air and kicked off of the wall, launching herself at him. He threw several kunai in her direction as he dodged her lunge. His kunai clattered to the ground as her shuriken deflected them from their intended path.


They had been sparring for more than an hour already without either gaining the advantage. Orochimaru watched from a safe location away from the combat zone of the main cavern. He seemed pleased with the intensity that was going into the match. Pleased with the level that his new body was fighting with. Pleased that the former Konoha ninja was still alive after being left alone with the Oto Youkai for 4 months. Maybe he should leave Sasuke with her for another 4 months and see how far he would come, and see if anything might develop with his pet.


He had no doubts that Sasuke would become stronger from fighting with his pet. He was simply curious to see what would happen to her if she was left alone with the young man. Curious to see if the avenger could melt the ice that was her heart. She might be more willing to open that void in her chest to someone who was similar in temperaments to herself, at least as far as having no love of life. She was no avenger, but she was a killing machine, and Sasuke had given himself over to Orochimaru knowing that he would become such a machine. If a little different in general use and purpose.


Maybe he could breed the two together. He had tried breeding her to others, but they weren't strong enough to actually hold her down long enough. She had killed them all with an ease that was a little humiliating to say the least, and extremely aggravating. He scowled to himself momentarily. His pet normally followed all of his instructions to the letter. Getting her to reproduce of her own free will was the one assignment that she absolutely refused to do.


He stopped scowling for a moment as he watched Sasuke actually hit her with a chidori, knocking the young woman to the ground in a burst of energy. She was bleeding sluggishly from her left arm where the attack had hit. She didn't even glance at it as she responded with a combination of kicks and punches, driving Sasuke against a wall and cracking her leg into his head. Her wound was gone in a matter of moments, leaving only dried blood to show that she had even been hurt.


Sasuke's eyes flashed crimson, but he was too slow to avoid the attack. His head smashed violently into the wall, leaving behind an outline of his skull. He blinked and performed a few quick hand seals, activating a healing jutsu that would keep him conscious and start the slow healing process. His sharingan stayed active and he used the added ability to his advantage, driving the young woman back using techniques that he had learned from others.


Orochimaru smiled to himself. Having the sharingan abilities tied together with the particular traits of his pet would be very advantageous. He would then have a seemingly endless supply of bodies to use in the future when the old ones wore out. Maybe he could even get that healing ability of hers to lessen so he could actually possess one of her children. Of all the abilities that he had worked with to get into her line, that had been the most difficult one to get. It was also a bit of a nuisance when he discovered that it was strong enough to keep him from possessing her body.


He watched them, observing how Sasuke continued to vary his attacks with a combination of taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu. Meanwhile, the young woman used only taijutsu. And while she wasn't defeating him as swiftly as she probably had in the earlier months of their training, she certainly wasn't losing to him. She was holding her own, and so was Sasuke.


Yes, he smiled, breeding her was a very good idea, and enhancing the sharingan line with her blood would prove useful in one way or another. No one ever accused him of not making an opportunity to strengthen Otogakure out of a failed attempt from something else. His smile wavered for a moment. All that was left was getting at least one of them to agree to the idea.

Chapter 6


She stood beside the dark youth and before the snake. Her breathing steady and even despite the battle with the young man only moments before. They had been given 15 minutes to rest after the demonstration. She had taken the time to pull her clothing straight across her slim body and to run her fingers through her shoulder length hair before pulling it behind her head in a small tail once more. She had also mended the only tear on her clothing, the place on her left arm where she had been hit with the chidori. She deftly pulled the threaded needle through the fabric with one hand without removing her clothing to do so.


She did not glance at the youth beside her. He was still panting slightly, he was tired. He had bandaged himself as well as he could without help, which she did not offer. He had employed the healing techniques that she had taught him, but he wasn’t completely healed from her attacks. He had run out of usable chakra, if he used anymore he could go into overextension and collapse. His clothing was ripped where she had cut him and she knew that he would have to mend it himself this night. The snake had better things to do with his time than to worry about the attire of those under him.


She did not look into the eyes of the man that owned her. She didn't even think about him. As long as she didn't allow herself the thoughts of a human she wouldn't feel the pain that came with it.


"I am very pleased with the progress that you have been making, Sasuke." the snake did not smile, he sneered, "However, you are still much too weak to even think about defeating your brother. I'm afraid that you will have to stay another 4 months in confinement with my pet."


His sneer grew as Sasuke's posture became much more rigid. She did not comment, she would do as she was told. She felt nothing about this turn of events. Initially, she had been told that she would train with the youth until Orochimaru deemed his training complete. She knew nothing of the boy himself (her instincts continued to tell her that he was nothing more than a child). She did not understand the hostility that was radiating off the boy at the mention of a brother. She did not care, though she would continue to do as she was told.


The snake-like man turned his eyes to the young woman who had shown no change of expression since he had entered. He wanted to laugh to himself; she hadn't shown any change of expression even in her sleep for over 10 years. She was the perfect killing machine. Better than any shinobi that he had ever seen or heard of, better even than himself. She felt even less than the Suna jinchuuriki that he had used in his attack on Konohagakure almost 3 years ago. He motioned for her to join him near the entrance of the caverns.


"I want to know your assessment of the boy."


"He is too angry; he allows his emotions to cloud nearly everything that he does. He is quick to learn the techniques that we have used both the healing jutsus and the taijutsu, although he will never be the equal of a truly experienced taijutsu master.” She continued her report in precise statements, adding nothing more than was necessary, using no emotion. Her voice void of not only emotion, but of life. “I don’t think that there will be any problems with your taking control of his body with his emotions so out of control.”


She had never cared about his habit of taking other bodies to remain alive, but she had never commented upon it, negatively or positively. To actually hear the way she stated it without any type of inflection in her voice…It sounded as if she was describing something unnecessary, but something that she didn’t care about regardless of its necessity.

Chapter 7


Sasuke carefully patched the tears in his clothing, squinting against the darkness of the cave and using the light of the fire before him. He sighed to himself; it had been almost 3 months since he had seen anyone other than his trainer. He would even have put up with Kabuto at this point. Orochimaru hadn't said anything else to him after informing him of his deficiencies when he had come to check on Sasuke after the first 4 months of training. The snake had simply left after discussing something with the flame haired woman.


Sasuke still didn't know her name. She had said nothing to him after their fight so he had said nothing to her in return. The silence had continued throughout the past weeks. She had continued to spar with him, driving him to get better and better. He sighed again; he hadn't felt this kind of need to get better since he had been on Team 7. He scowled to himself; of course it was because he felt the need to get better that he had left Team 7. He had thought that it was impossible to become stronger while remaining in Konoha as a member of said team. Now, he wasn't so sure...


He shook his head and slipped his shirt back over his head and ducked as he felt the air behind him stir. He spun and rested his eyes upon the flame haired woman. She did not attack him; her eyes held his as she lifted her hands and performed a few simple hand signs. She waited patiently for him to copy the signs that she had presented. He ignored the signs and looked into her eyes. She stared back at him with her dead amber orbs.


He sweatdropped as he realized that this was the first time since Orochimaru's visit that she had looked him in the eyes. She had battled with him, almost killing him several times since he had been tested in front of the snake, but she had refused to make direct eye-contact since.


His eyes widened as he realized that she had not used any chakra when showing him the hand signs. He slowly copied the movements, but with chakra this time. His eyes dilated as a torrent of pain was unleashed from the curse-seal near the base of his skull. He did not scream although his hand moved jerkily towards the mark in a futile attempt to stop the pain. He hunched over, nearly losing his balance as another torrent swept through his body from the pulsing mark.


She stared at him showing no more emotion than she ever did. Her eyes held nothing, hiding nothing. Showing no response to the pain he was in.


He dropped to his knees as memories that he had suppressed resurfaced in his mind.
He saw his brother killing their clan, their parents…


His pupils dilated and he whimpered as he remembered staring into those blood soaked eyes for the first time…


He felt overwhelming fear in his heart as he saw senbon needles finding their way towards his first friend, his only friend…


He felt the pain of death as it threatened to engulf him as he ‘died’ for that friend…


He felt the anguish as he realized that he couldn’t protect his friends from the monster that the sand-nin was becoming…


His mind burned with humiliation as he realized that he was weaker than someone he had always considered far his inferior…


He did not scream. He did not cry out. No sound was heard from him other than that first whimper.


Then he remembered what it felt like to push his hand through the body of the one that he cared the most about, the first person he had let inside his heart since the betrayal of his brother…


He screamed as he remembered the desire to kill the one that had become more a brother than ever his real blood…


She stared at him as he collapsed to the floor, clutching the throbbing curse-mark on his shoulder. Through his fingers she could see the swirl of angry colors as the curse-mark began to dissolve off of his skin.

Chapter 8


“W-what did you do to me?” he managed to gasp out after what seemed like hours yet mere minutes at the same time. He wasn’t sure how long he had been on the ground clutching at his shoulder. He looked up at her through his raven -colored hair.


She was silent as he slowed his breathing to a more normal rate. This had hurt more than anything she had done to him before. This had hurt on an entirely different level. One he had tried to seal away in his mind since coming to Otogakure. He had avoided his memories of everything except the blind rage at his brother for what he had done.


He growled at the silent woman before launching himself at her. Her dead eyes representing everything that he hated. Everything that he wanted to destroy in this one moment of understanding. Understanding that he would never be able to do what he had set out to do because he just didn’t have the necessary hate.


When all was said and done, he just didn’t want to be dead inside like that snake that he had bartered his body to. Dead like his elder brother. Dead like the woman who stood impassively before him.


He kicked at her head. She dodged and grabbed his leg in one smooth motion, sending him flying into a wall. He rolled and rebounded drawing and throwing shuriken at her. She leapt over the metal stars and sliced at him with a kunai he had not noticed in her hand. His arm burned momentarily where she had struck, but he ignored it and grabbed her arm as it swung at him again. He twisted it painfully behind her back and stared down into her eyes when she made no immediate move to release herself.


She made no sound, only stared back into his eyes. She dropped the kunai and swept her legs under his, knocking him the floor. He didn’t let go of her arm, bringing her down with him. He pinned her underneath him, surprised when she went limp.


“What did you do to me?” he demanded again, glaring into her empty amber eyes with his obsidian ones.


She closed her eyes and spoke quietly. If they had been anywhere but in a cave he would have never heard her.


“I gave you what you wished for.”


He stared at her, not fully comprehending what she had said.


“W-what do you mean?”


His voice was a whisper, quiet yet demanding. Firm, yet afraid. As if he didn’t want to know what the answer was, but, at the same time, couldn’t resist his need to know.


Slowly, ever so slowly, her eyes opened and met his before turning to look over his shoulder towards the entrance of the caves. He turned his own gaze parallel to hers and started when he heard the sound of footsteps coming closer.

Chapter 9


"How could you allow this to happen?"


He lashed out at her with his right hand, striking her across the face. Her cheek reddened slightly, but her head remained motionless, her eyes empty. The redness faded after a few moments, but the young woman made no move to reproach the snake-like man before her for the callous way in which he was treating her. He had always treated her as something that needed punishment if she did something that he didn't approve of in the faintest way possible. It didn’t really help that, at the moment, she had done something that would set the Snake Sannin back for centuries in obtaining that which he had wanted since he had first become interested in the Uchihas.


She had removed the curse-mark from the Uchiha heir by way of a specific healing jutsu that would forever make it impossible for the immortality bent thing (there was no conceivable way to even think of Orochimaru as a man, much less a human, even she could see that) to ever leave his mark on the young man again. Orochimaru would never be able to possess Sasuke. It rankled him that it was a freak accident.


The jutsu in question had been tested many times before on various Oto shinobi, both those with and without the curse-mark. None of those test subjects (of course the shinobi used in the tests had no idea that they had been used as little more than lab rats) had had this particular reaction to the technique. In fact, in the majority of the cases, they had become stronger or been able to last longer under the affects of the curse-mark before their bodies started to corrode.


The jutsu had been initially created in an attempt to help cure Kimimaru, although the best that it had been able to do was to keep the Dead Bone user from dying right after being given the curse-mark. It had, regrettably, been unable to cure him of the affliction that was killing him, and so, made it impossible for Orochimaru to use the now dead young man as his own vessel.


The jutsu had been cleared to be given to the Uchiha heir, but no one could have foreseen this turn of events.


Orochimaru, naturally, placed the blame upon the one who had been teaching the young man instead of upon the ones who had cleared the technique’s use on the boy. Of course, seeing a how he had been the one to give the jutsu to the girl to teach to his future vessel did nothing for his temper. He lashed out at the young woman before him using numerous jutsu and weapons, although he did not employ his Kusanagi in the chastisement of his pet. That would be taking things a little too far, even in his own twisted mind. It might take her out of action for a day at the very most, true, but that was one day too many. She was not allowed to have rest periods for any reason at all. Even if it was his own fault that she required rest to recuperate from her injuries.


He didn’t stop his abuse of the poor creature until he was called away to take care of some other important matter. Something that actually required him to come as the Otokage instead of just as himself.


She watched, not caring, as he closed the wooden door behind himself. She did see the robes denoting his official status as a Kage over a Hidden Village being handed to him by his grey-haired sycophant before the door was fully closed. Must be something to do with one of the other Hidden Villages then, the snake never wears his formal robes for anything else. She didn’t really care what the snake was doing or where he was going.


Her injuries had already started to heal themselves as soon as he had stopped hitting her. Now the only proof that she had been injured at all was the drying blood on her black clothing. She stripped off her clothing once she was once again in her own rooms and sewed the rips in the clothing back together efficiently, using her own hair as thread. Her hair was much stronger than the thread that she had been using before her hair had grown out to this length. A side effect of being a demon, she guessed. Her hair could be used as effectively as ninja wire when she wanted to, though she had never really tried.


She slipped back into her clothing and retied her hair back absentmindedly. If the stupid stuff wasn’t so darn useful, then she would just cut it all off. She sighed to herself before locking that part of her mind back into it’s corner and taking up her wakizashi in her hands. It had been a few months since she had used it.


After the fiasco with the Uchiha heir (she knew his name now and she had been taught to use names for things once she had learned them…when she didn’t do so…the results were not desirable) he had been quarantined. Only Kabuto and Orochimaru were allowed to see or work with him. She herself had not seen hide nor hair of the young man that she had been training for almost a year since they had been discovered so soon after the completion of the disastrous healing jutsu.


She still did not know very much about the dark youth, although she found it hard to really care. Then again, she found it hard to care about anything. He did cause her to pause and think a little more than usual, though she wasn’t really sure why. It was almost as if he was somehow the key to getting her out of this Haven-forsaken place.


One way or another, anyway.



----------Scene Change----------



Sasuke leafed through his book once more. Life for the past few months hadn’t been as interesting lately. He knew why, but it didn’t help matters at all.


His curse-mark had dissolved, and no matter how hard Orochimaru tried, he wasn’t able to re-mark the Uchiha. Sasuke wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about this new development in his life. On one hand, he could think more clearly now than he had been able to since he had gotten the curse-mark in the first place. On the other hand, he couldn’t feel that overpowering sense of strength that had flowed through him since he had first activated the mark on accident in the Forest of Death during the Chunin Exams 2 and a half years ago.


He hadn’t seen his trainer since the jutsu malfunction that had put him in Kabuto’s ‘tender care’ for a few weeks. He wasn’t sure what he would do once he did see the young woman again.


He shook his head and placed his book on a table by his bed. He had read through most of the scrolls and quite a few of the books in Orochimaru’s library. He was rapidly running out of things to take his mind off of the things that the young woman had brought up into his mind during his time with her.


In the time that he had been away from her training regimen he had learned a few things about the woman. She had no real name, or if she did, it was one that none knew save for herself and perhaps Orochimaru. She was simply known as the Oto Youkai, Sound Demon. She was aptly named, although it would probably have been more accurate to call her the Oto no Youkai, Demon of the Sound. She did not use any specific Sound techniques in her fighting style, at least as far as he knew.


She was sent on the highest level of missions that were capable in Otogakure. And she always returned without so much as a scratch on her body. Occasionally there would appear to be a tear in her clothing, but it was always small and easily fixed, usually with one of her own hairs. Sasuke had learned that particular detail by living with her for almost a year. After training with her, he wasn’t surprised at her reputation, although some things did seem a little farfetched, even to him.


It was said that she only ever spoke to Orochimaru and that, when they did speak, it was in a language only known to demons. He scoffed at that one right off, after all, she had spoken to him. All right, she hadn’t really ever said very much to him, but she had spoke in Japanese clearly and without an accent. If she did speak any other languages, then she had at least learned Japanese since she was very young.


She did not socialize with others, probably as a result of being away from Otogakure most of the time on some crazy mission. She held no real rank among the shinobi of the village, and had no headband. The shinobi of the village didn’t really like to talk about her unless they knew for a fact that she wasn’t within 100 meters of Otogakure, and even then, it was extremely difficult to get anything out of them.


He knew nothing about her childhood except for the fact that she had apparently been with Orochimaru from birth at the very most. Sasuke didn’t think that Orochimaru raised the woman when she had been a girl. Sure, he had probably had a hand in her training, but Sasuke suspected that the Snake Sannin hadn’t taken as personal an interest in developing the girl’s emtions towards trust and loyalty as he had done with some of his other top tools, shinobi or not. The Sound four were a prime example of those who gave their loyalty to the old snake without question.


Sasuke wondered what was so different about the Oto no Youkai that Orochimaru would treat her as even less than a tool when she was so much more productive in results than any of his other tools.


a/n: sorry, it's been a while since I updated this...I just now realized that I hadn't posted the new shapters on this site...*rubs back of neck sheepishly*...oops

Chapter 10


He bashed his head a few more times against the stone wall he rested against to chastise himself for his stupidity. Had he really thought that the Snake would just let him leave the Village once he was no longer being controlled? Idiot! More of a baka than Naruto ever was!


It no longer hurt quite so much to think of his once best friend. Oh, it still caused him discomfort, especially when he thought of how they had parted. He had tried to kill him, and for something as stupid as trying to save him! He had tried to kill the first person to ever see him as himself and not as something he was not.


Naruto hadn’t seen the Uchiha name or eyes. Hadn’t seen the foolish little brother, or the pathetic son. He had seen Sasuke. Only one other had ever seen Sasuke and not something else, but she had died, killed by a son that had been pushed too far too young. Killed by the maniac that the Uchihas had created.


He could admit it now to himself. His clan had been very foolish in how they treated their children; training them to always be the best, the top shinobi. Very few in his clan had ever lasted through life and remained mentally stable. The only one that he could recall being anywhere near a picture of mental health from his younger years would have been his second cousin. Uchiha Obito, who had died at the age of 13 on a mission near the Village Hidden in the Stone. The only comfort was in the fact that at least his clan hadn’t separated the family into a main and branch house as cruelly as the Hyuugas; how could they live knowing that half of their blood relatives were regarded as slaves?


Didn’t mean they were much better, just meant that they didn’t separate the family as a result of when they or their parents were born in regards to firstborn or whatever. No, his clan separated them on a basis of whether they had activated the sharingan and then classified them even further on what skill level they were at. This wouldn’t have been quite so bad, the system had actually been a lot more fair when it had first been enacted. It helped to assign each family member to what they could and couldn’t handle in regards to protecting Konohagakure as a part of the Village’s Military Police Force.


Things didn’t stay that way though. As with all things over time, the system became corrupted and filled with those that only sought out power for their own means instead of for protecting those weaker than themselves. There were still those who didn’t try to gain just for the sake of it, but even those individuals weren’t mentally stable by any definition of the word either. Each child born was pressed into becoming the best the fastest they were able to. Not to say that each parent was doing so for harmful purposes. Many believed that it was the best thing for their child. To help them survive in the world that their clan had created for daily life.


Not to say that the clan would kill off the weak, but they could be very cruel. Most of the Clan Council had lost sight of just what it was they were supposed to be doing. His own father had been among them, though he hadn’t been able to see it at the time. He was a child after all, and his mother had tried her hardest to shelter him as much as possible. It didn’t stop him from seeing certain things happening in his family, but he had been young and hadn’t fully understood just what he had seen at the time. That, and after the Massacre, he had suppressed all but the best of his memories deep into his own mind.


The cursed Heaven seal hadn’t helped matters either, nor had the constant pressure to restore the honor of his clan’s name. He hadn’t been able to think clearly for most of his life, nobody had ever tried to counsel him after the deaths of his family, he wasn’t ever sure just why. The Hokage would have done something, he was sure of that, but the man had been old and worn from life. He had tried, Sasuke remembered that much, but the old man had a whole Village to watch over, he hadn’t had the time to take special care of one child.


Sasuke snorted to himself. The man should have never had to take upon himself the role of Hokage actively again, but things in life never went as we would have them go. It wasn’t the old man’s fault that his successor had died so young or that those who could have succeeded him were never in contact enough to take up the mantle anew. He hadn’t known the reasons then and he wasn’t so sure what the reasons for their seeming abandonment of Konoha was now. His mentor hadn’t seen fit to inform him of just why his old teammates had left Konoha before he was born. Not that he had wanted to know before now.


His thoughts wandered further, moving away from Konoha’s politics for a moment and onto a more painful route.


His brother.


He hadn’t thought of his brother in such a long time. Well, he had thought of the murder that he had become, but he hadn’t thought of the boy that his brother had been before the Massacre. His brother wasn’t the killer that had destroyed their clan. No, his brother was one of the casualties. He died that night as much as their parents. He had been an innocent, an innocent that had died inside just as surely as any of the others of their clan that had gained their sharingan so early in life.


Too much power too young was a dangerous thing. It could kill everyone around the holder as much as the holder themselves.


He knew that as much as anyone else.


Look what had happened to him.


He had lost himself to the tainted power of the cursed seal that Orochimaru had placed upon him. He had tried to kill his best friend, the person that had become like the little brother he used to be.


He had become something to be detested.


Sasuke closed his eyes and wrapped his head sharply against the stone wall behind him several more times. Now was not the time to be feeling pity for himself. He glanced at the locked door of his room once more. Now was the time to be figuring out a way out of this snake-infested place.


He had tried to leave earlier, but that had only landed him locked in his room with chakra suppression seals firmly secured to his limbs. He had half expected them to throw him in a dungeon cell or something, but then he had remembered that he was to be the new body of the Snake, couldn’t have him be injured. He was fed regularly and sedated and force-fed through an IV if he didn’t feed himself properly. He didn’t read to pass the time anymore. The books had been taken from him the first time he had tried to starve himself.


There were no windows. The only way in or out of the room was through the door in front of him. The door that only opened when Kabuto, and the Oto ANBU that always accompanied the medi-nin, would enter for Sasuke’s weekly check-up. The food was slid under the door on a sheet of paper inscribed with a seal on it. The food would appear from the sealed paper and then become useless, only to burst into flame as soon as he had consumed the food.


Speaking of which, his dinner had just arrived.


Fantastic.



----------Scene Change----------



She glanced up momentarily towards the entrance of the compound before looking back down at the ground. The Snake was returning from that meeting that he had to go to earlier. He had taken the silver-haired medi-nin with him. They were to meet with one of his old Akatsuki brethren.


The puppet master.


She had met him briefly once, when she was younger. He had been fascinated by her healing abilities. He had asked Orochimaru if the snake had any others besides herself, and if he was willing to part with them. Orochimaru had apologized in his sneering way that contradicted any sincerity that might have been in his tone and told the red-haired puppet master that she was one of a kind. Afterwards, he had allowed his one time partner to practice a few of his techniques on her as way of making it up to him, and as a way to see just how durable she was.


She had been 5 years old at the time.


At the time, she still had a small connection to her emotions and had felt the loathing she had for the man that had been instrumental in her creation deepened to its most dark. That had been the last emotion that she had ever felt.


She had felt no anger towards the man causing the pain and anguish in her small form for she could see that he gained no pleasure from it. It was merely a study to see if she could survive. If there was any that she ever felt something akin to respect, it would have been the red-haired puppet, Sasori. He had trained most of what she was in the taijutsu department. He had been the one to teach her how to mend her clothing with her own hair. He had not cared in the slightest for her personally, but he had seen a puppet, albeit one that breathed, and had thought that she should at least be in the best condition.


As any work of art should, he had often told her. Art was eternal and should be treated with respect.


She had taken her queue from him from then on. She emulated what he was and grafted his personality into her own. Her clothing was made of the finest silk, and it covered every part of her skin as it possibly could. She was art, and she would behave as full of life as any silent work.


She wondered who had become the emotionally dead man’s new partner when Orochimaru has left the organization. The thought did not stay active in her mind for long. It didn’t matter, nothing really did. Life would roll onward no matter what had happened to the puppet. She had rarely seen him as a human even before he had destroyed most of his flesh in his pursuit of perfection; he had always seemed more like the puppets he controlled than anything else.


He had been the only one to ever cause her injury that had last more than a few short moments. The only one to ever defeat her in a battle.


She wondered if there was any way for her to get away from her current location as a guard for the compound the Uchiha resided within.


Her thoughts were brought back to into focus as she noted the pale youth following her ‘master’. She sprung into action, appearing behind the dark-haired young man while pressing a kunai firmly to his throat at the pulse point. He froze and she could smell the ink coming from him. He was an artist…


Like Sasori-danna.


This information meant nothing to her. She merely catalogued it away in her mind.


The Snake smiled, if you could call it that, “Ah, I see you’ve met our new guest.” He gestured towards the silent youth she held at blade-point, “This is Sai, he will be joining us.”


His gaze flickered towards an Oto Shinobi a few meters away who was drilling a few of chunin. Said man jumped to attention and rattled off a few orders towards those in his command to take over her shift. Once that was done, the gold eyes returned towards looking into the deadened eyes of his creation. He smirked before indicating that she should release the Konoha-nin.


“Join us, would you, my pet?”


She slipped the kunai back into her holster and trailed behind the three men soundlessly. Every once and a while, the artist’s eyes would flick in her direction so quickly that the only one to notice was the young woman under scrutiny.


She recognized him for what he was from the glitter in his eyes and the falsity of his smile.


He was like her, only his art was transferred off of himself and onto another medium.


He was slightly different though, his eyes reminded her of how the Uchiha’ s had been before the cursed seal had dissolved, only more empty, more like hers.


Though not as dead.


a/n: well...forgive me for any inconsistencies in this story...it is one of my first for this fandom...it might be a while before I update...but I'm not dropping the story, I've gotten it all figured out, even the ending, it's just getting the chapters written!...that and plot bunnies have been attacking me lately...

Chapter 11

Sasuke had given up on counting the days since his confinement. Time didn’t mean very much when you couldn’t even tell whether it was day or night. Meals arrived regularly, but other than that, there was no real way to tell what time of day it was. The meals themselves were all very plain, although highly nutritious so as not to cause any damage to the snake’s ‘new body’.

He sighed for what seemed the millionth time and wondered at his own self. Just what, exactly, had he been thinking? His mind couldn’t seem to organize itself. One moment he was angry with himself for leaving Konohagakure and trying to kill his best friend, and another, he was wondering just what had possessed him to throw away this seemingly golden opportunity to gain more power to not only kill his brother but quite possibly to be able to protect any future that he might have.

Not that he currently had anyone to share anything with, although if he could get his teammates to talk to him again… No, ex-teammates, they were his ex-teammates. He didn’t care what they thought or what they did. Yet he was still worried about the dobe and the annoying pink thing. He was worried that they would do something stupid, like continuing to chase after him, and get themselves killed. He was worried about how his betrayal had affected his mentor and sensei, Kakashi. The silver haired man may not have been the most reliable of teachers, but he had always done well by the raven haired youth.

The raven shook his head yet again and tried to direct his thoughts instead of letting them wander down any path they seemingly chose at a moment’s notice. He couldn’t decide how to feel about anything much less think. His emotions, as his thoughts, seemed to jump from one extreme to another without meeting in the middle and it frustrated him to no end.

He was almost 16 years old for goodness sake! He should have some kind of grasp on his own emotions by now! He had lived on his own since he was 8 years old, had to look after his own affairs. He should be able to make up his mind between whether he wanted to feel joy at the opportunity that Orochimaru had given him or to feel remorse at his own actions in leaving the place of his birth.
If he stayed here, with the snake, and allowed himself to become the old man’s new body, there was a price to pay, but he would get some benefit out of the bargain. He knew that the old snake would, eventually, kill his older brother, he would be obliged to do so, if only out of a sense of preservation for his own skin. Sasuke also knew that his clan would be revived. Orochimaru wouldn’t be able to stay in his body forever; he would be able to stay in the body for three years at the very least before rejection would set in. Orochimaru would have to wait until Sasuke was at least 18 years old before he tried to take the Uchiha’s body as his own in order to insure that Sasuke had any offspring at all so as to have more sharingan wielding bodies to some day possess.

Not that the snake would take possession, in the literal sense, of every single offspring he produced, it wouldn’t be necessary. They had discovered that a body that held a kekkei genkai could withstand the rejection of the foreign soul for a lot longer than a body that didn’t hold such a talent. The Sannin would allow his clan to flourish as much as possible, as a part of Otogakure.

The Snake Sannin would make sure that the Uchiha Clan, once a proud part of Konohagakure, would be integrated into his own shinobi village as seamlessly as possible. After all, Otogakure was looked at as an extension of the serpent-like man. It was just another part of his insane bid for immortality. As long as Otogakure flourished, so would he; at least, that’s what the snake believed. If the Sound failed, then he would as well, and vice versa.

Sasuke’s thoughts, once again, strayed from their course of evaluating his own life as he thought more on the village that he had seemingly joined.
Otogakure wasn’t quite like Konohagakure has been. The people there had once been outcasts from other villages, shinobi or not. Not everyone living within the village was a shinobi or even capable of becoming one. There were farmers, weavers, and every other kind of worker imaginable for a village to prosper, even a small village like Otogakure.

The Village Hidden in the Sound wasn’t anywhere near the size of Konohagakure or even the size of Sunagakure, but it would be, some day. The people here were like people any where. They lived, they died, they laughed, they cried. They grew angry at one another and teased each other about trivial things. They weren’t the dark, evil people that many in Konoha had thought of when they first discovered that Otogakure was founded and led by the Leaf’s rogue Sannin.

In a way, he could see Otogakure as a type of offshoot of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. They even had similar philosophies. Konohagakure’s main lesson was that each member of the village was just as important as the topmost official or shinobi. That each person was important in their own right and should never be abandoned. Otogakure’s lesson was that each person should be treated as special, that each could be useful in their own way if so allowed. That, though each were different, that they still had the same potential to become something more.

In a way, each village was as much a hypocrite as the other as well. In Konohagakure, people were treated differently depending on their clan titles. He could understand a certain amount of respect being given to those who had a kekkei genkai of some sort or had contributed greatly to the village one way or another, earned respect, but he didn't see how it should be allowed to be taken advantage of as much as it had been. He had hated how people tried to pander to his every whim, trying to gain favor with the 'last of the prestigious Uchiha Clan'. It sickened him how the people had tried to sell themselves, especially some of the women, just for a chance to be associated with him.

It was one of the reasons that he had been so stand-offish with others, his own age or not. He couldn't trust that they hadn't been sent by their own parents to curry favor with him.

Many would say that he shouldn't be that suspicious of anything, but he had remembered what people had been like towards his brother. He had seen how disgusted his brother had been towards those types of people, and he had felt the same way.

After all, a part of the reason he still hated his elder brother with such a passion was because he still, deep down in his subconscious, wanted to be just like his nii-san.

----------Scene Change----------

She didn't make eye contact with anyone in the group; too busy scanning the area around them.

It would not do to be taken by surprise even in their own base of operations.

They were not in Otogakure; had not been since the Sannin's apprentice had tried to escape. Orochimaru thought that it was too risky to be in one place too long. They had stayed in Otogakure long enough for the sedatives placed in the young Uchiha's food to saturate his system long enough for him to remain unconscious for a little over 36 hours. That had taken a little over two weeks to accomplish.

They were now located in one of the Snake's many compounds scattered throughout the Elemental Countries. She knew which one they were at, and she knew which one they would move too in a few days. She didn't particularly care which one they went to, she knew them all, had been to them all. She was created in one of them, not in Otogakure like many believed.

Just because she was spoken of as the Oto no Youkai did not mean that she originated from there.

Of course, most of the population currently residing within the village walls didn't originate from the small, but flourishing ninja settlement. Many were refugees of one kind or another; people looking for a place to stay and a new start. They looked to their leader, their Otokage to protect them from those that would harm them for simply existing.

She briefly wondered if they knew what the Snake was really like.

Orochimaru was very careful to project a sense of the caring uncle towards 'his' people. He made sure no one starved, that everyone had a roof over their heads. That everyone had work that they could enjoy, that they would receive medical care when needed. Counseling for those with problems wishing to recover from them and make restitution for the wrongs they had made in their lives.

He was the perfect leader for his people.

There seemed to be no crime on the streets of Otogakure.

People who were discontented with the lifestyle would leave, presumably of their own free will. Though this did not happen often, for a multitude of reasons.

First and foremost, many didn't have another place to go, so if they found something about life as a citizen of the ninja village they would, more likely than not, grit their teeth and bare with it. Secondly, if they didn't bare with it and tried to cause trouble, they would be arrested and taken to gaol. Some would change their ways and return to life amongst the populace.

Others were not so lucky.

No one amongst the civilians living in the ninja village really knew about that part. They were just told that the discontented were taken to a new place to stay, one where they would still be safe from those out to kill them for whatever reason, and that they would have several chances to change how they acted.

Of course there were still rumors, but no one really paid them any mind, or at least, not for long if they did try to look in on things too closely.

Otogakure was not a place for those who questioned their leader, but it was a place of refuge and a new start, so many didn't want to question where the hand that fed them came from or what it did when it wasn't seeing to their needs. You took everything at face value and tried not to question or look too closely. It was, after all, a village of ninja, extremely paranoid ninja, who were taught to do whatever their 'savior' told them to do. To do otherwise was to risk being exiled back into the world that had already turned against them. Many followed the village policies out of genuine gratitude, while others just wanted to save what they had left of their lives.

Her expression didn't change as she was dismissed. The Snake wanted her to escort their new ally to his quarters. She said nothing as she indicated a direction that the painter should follow her towards. The pale youth made no attempt to start a meaningless conversation.

They walked silently through the halls of the compound, the only sound to follow them was the almost nonexistent footfalls of the dark-haired artist.