Disclaimer: I do not anything from Naruto nor did I make any money off this chapter. All credits goes to the author.
Prologue:
Normally a forest is supposed to be a dark and quiet place since the moonlight is blocked by the thousands of leaves covering the hundreds of trees. Feeling the moonlight touch her face, a young girl was awoken and not in the best way. Instead of soft sheets or fluffy pillows, she felt something hard and heavy crushing her body. Opening her eyes, she was not only surrounded by what looked like chopped wood but was also being trapped by some of it. She wasn't sure what part of her body hurt more, her head which was throbbing, her back which was experiencing most of the pressure and weight of the logs, or her legs which felt more starched up than crushed.
Using the only free parts of her body, she tried to push on the logs on top of her if for nothing else to have more wiggled room. "How in the world did I get under all of these logs?" she asked herself desperately trying to be free. Thankfully after a few moments she was able to squeeze her back and gradually her legs followed suit. After pushing several pounds of wood off her body, she was surprised she wasn't as tired as she thought she would be. While her body was still throbbing from the release of the weight, she actually felt okay. Inspecting her body, she noticed she was wearing some black tights on her arms and legs, a tan garment all wrapped around a purple roped belt, and when the wind started blowing did she noticed her long red hair.
"Where am I?", she wondered.
She looked around as the moon cast its pale rays on the ground, and noticed that it looked like the whole forest was chopped down.
"What in the world could have chopped down a whole forest?"
So many questions she had; where is she, how did she get there, and the most important one of all….who was she? She couldn't remember anything that happened before the last 10 minutes, the only thing she knew was that she was lost, alone, and worried. The young girl looked around trying to decide what direction she should go in, but it didn't seem like anywhere made much of a difference. Using the moon as a guide, she followed its direction in hopes of being able to find a village with people, some food, or some shelter.
The walk wasn't so bad, it was refreshing being able to walk and not be stuck for however long she was stuck between the logs. Her legs were not that injured so she was able to walk for at least a mile away from where she was. As she started walking she noticed that she had arrived to another forest, one where the trees were perfectly enacted, which was something positive. However the obvious side effect was the lack of moonlight guiding her direction. Trying to decide if she should go into the forest or go around the forest, she thought it would be better to go around because at least she could see where she is going. Before moving along the edge of the forest, the young girl heard ruffling sounds. Turing her head to look forward she saw a small shine in her direct vision, and the shine seemed to be getting brighter by the second.
Letting her curiosity get the better of her, she waited to see what was coming her way.
It was another older boy, white hair glasses coming out of the forest. He didn't look dangerous since he came out slowing making little eye contact so the young girl just stared at the boy to see what he was going to do. She saw that the boy was wearing similar clothes to her, the only difference was the color palette.
"What are you doing here? said the older boy.
Unable to fully answer his question the young girl just gave a confused look. The prolonged answer didn't seem to make the older boy happy as his face went from stoic to a frown.
"I asked you a question and I expect an answer." He said in a lower tone.
"I am lost, I don't really know where I am going." she finally answered.
"Pathetic, you should have returned to Sound….that is unless you failed your mission" he said darkly.
"Mission?" she asked.
"Are we playing games Tayuya, because I can assure you Orochimaru won't share your humor." the older boy spoke as if all his patience was out of the window.
"I am not playing games, I don't know where I am nor do I know who I am!" she yelled in reply.
The young boy just started at her with a stern looking his face. She felt uncomfortable at the way he was looking at her as his eyes were all over her body as if he was looking for something. Not happy with the first person she had met; she slowly backed a way just in case he posed a danger to her. As she back away slowly the boy didn't seem to be bothered, as he stayed where he was.
Before she got too far, the boy disappeared from her sight showing up right in front her. Before she had to time to react to the close space between them, he grabbed her arms preventing her from moving further away. She struggled to loosen his grip but his grip was firm and bordering painful.
"What do you take me for?" he asked.
"So now you have amnesia, how convenient. As if you were not such a nuisance before, where is your pride?" He continued.
"I will have Orochimaru deal with you, since you failed in your mission I don't expect you ever having to make that mistake again." He said grabbing her and dragging her to the forest.
"Wait, what do you mean "never make that mistake again? Who is this Orochimaru?" she asked while pivoting her feet in the ground. Hopefully she was able to slow their pace so she could escape.
"Still going to play around, you must really want a death wish." The boy said with a chuckle as he continued to pull her along the way.
"What do you mean death, I didn't do anything wrong" she exclaimed.
"You have failed your mission, if you're lucky Orochimaru just use you for experimentation since you are useless everywhere else." He said walking faster.
The young girl was in shock. Between the time she woke up to now she was lost, now all she wanted to be lost. She didn't know how this boy was or where he was talking her, but her chances alone seemed better than going wherever he was going to take her. She tried using her body weight and pull against his grip on her arm, and to some lucky she was able to at least have him stop from the strain. Not happy that she was fighting him, he let go of her arm, which made her fall backwards.
"You want to play games, let's play", he said with a smirk.
He walked over to her and hand stretched out a hand to grabbed a large lock of her hair and force her up by the back of her head. "Ouch, you're hurting me!" as she grabbed his hand to ease the hold on her hair. After holding her for a minute or two he grew suspicious. Even if she was playing games what would she gain from this charade, it is not like she actually thinks he thinks she has amnesia? Feeling her body tremble he heard sniffing and while pulling her head up he discovered her eyes were beginning to water. He didn't know Tayuya long, but he knew crying was something she didn't do.
Loosening but not letting go he saw tears in her eyes streaming down her face. He was used to seeing women's tears, but to see he tears almost shocked him. "How long do you plan on acting, Tayuya?" he said as he looked her straight in the eyes hoping to find some deception. All she did was look at him like a deer caught in the headlights. "Fine, we can keep playing this game of your till you are ready to be serious." he said as his grip tightened. "Who knows I might have some fun playing too." he said giving off his signature smirk.
His eyes were anything but warm, the coldness from his eyes and the hold on her head had her more worried than when she woke up under logs . "Wait, please all I want is to-" she was interrupted as he tightened his grip and said "Shut up." "At least tell me your name." she asked.
"My name is Kabuto" saying almost like he is talking to a child. While his grip was painful and his eyes cold, that was only time he showed he was warm blooded.
As they were walking she saw a small lake come into view. Kabuto stopped and turned around to lean forward to caressing her cheek. Kabuto removed his other hand from her hair. She was so nervous she let him caress her cheek, at least they stopped moving. She saw Kabuto step back and put his hands together then later both his hands were glowing blue. Kabuto stood there waving his around her face. She closed her eyes and lowered her head as his hands got closer but barely reaching her face.
"If I wanted to, I could decapitate you right now. I can say I never saw you and no one would bother to verify." He said in a deeper tone. One of his hands turned normal he grabbed her face so she would look him in the eyes. "Open your eyes", he said. She closed her eyes harder; not wanting to look at what she was sure was the devil. Kabuto stroked the left side of her cheek before she felt like someone has cut her. Shocked by the sensation she opened her eyes and took a sleep back in fear. While the cut didn't hurt the surprise put her on her alert, she reached for her cheek only to feel a thin line and small traces of blood.
"Sorry couldn't resist, I am actually having fun playing this game of ours." He remarked ignoring the frightening look the girls' eyes.
"How do you know who I am?" she thought to ask.
"I am your subordinate, nothing more." He replied quickly.
"Why was I out here?" she continued trying to get more answers from him.
"All of those questions will be answered shortly, for now lets go back to playing games." He said.
Stepping forward he reached for her face, with his eyes daring her to move. Touching her face, he traced her jaw then up to her cheek.
"Please stop." she asked.
"Normally I am not very touchy with girls, but seeing you all vulnerable and teary-eyed….I don't know why but I feel more attracted to you." He replied with her smirk while continuing to trace her jaw.
"It is almost a shame that Orochimaru will probably kill you, just when I was starting to like you." Kabuto said with little concern in his voice. All while Tayuya was on the verge of creating more tears.
"Well since this may be our last time before you die, how about a parting gift?" he asked.
Tayuya didn't even to think about what kind of "gift" he wanted. His hand reached to the back of her head grabbing her hair. Not wanting to experience that discomfort she reached for his hands hoping to pull them off her. "Put your hands down now." was all he said in a tone that showed he meant it.
Lowering her hands she looked up at him hoping that he would ease the hold if she listened. Loosening his grip on her head, he had her lean forward while he followed suit. As she felt his face get closer and closer, she closed her eyes hoping that whatever he was going to do would be over with soon. She felt his cheek caress her uncut cheek while he moved is chest closer to her chest. Unable to move, she just stayed still wishing she was back under the logs than with him.
After a few more minutes of caressing, he removed his hand from her hair only to grab her hand.
"I want you to touch my face like I touched yours." he said almost in demanding way. Unfortunately, she didn't like the way her touched her face so all she did was reach and put her hand on her cheeks keeping them there. With his grip free he moved her hands in circular motions on his face, after showing her what he wanted her released his hold on her hand. She wasn't sure how long she was supposed to be rubbing his cheeks, but at least this task wasn't as painful as what she had been through. "You can stop now." He said removing her hand from his face.
The next thing he knew he felt a presence from behind him. He turned around and low and behold was the great Jiraiya. "Well I was on my way to Konoha and guess what I find." said Jiraiya with a stern look on her face.
"I guess our time is up" he whispered in her ear. Turning his head some toward Jiraiya's direction he spoke "So what are you doing here, Jiraiya sightseeing? "just as he grabbed a lock of Tayuya's lock and started twirling it with his fingers. "I hear you and Orochimaru have done some damage to Konoha, I am sure they would not be bothered if I brought them Orochimaru's lackey." Kabuto pulled out a kunai raised it to Tayuya's neck and said "What if I don't want to, then what?" Kabuto wasn't done "playing games.
Tayuya wished that he would turn his back so she could get away. She looked at the man with the long silver hair hoping he would save her. "What do you have there? Another sample you can test your sick experiments on? Jiraya said coldly.
"Her a sample, technically." Kabuto responded with a slight chuckle. He kept pushing the blade closer to her neck till he saw little droplets spill on the blade. "This 'sample' is one of the Sound Village elite fighters. We were playing a few games before you showed up." he replied.
"She doesn't seem like she is too interested in playing." said Jiraiya said slowly stepping forward. Kabuto finally turned toward Jiraiya, but not allowing Tayuya to back away too far away. "Well I guess the game ends her, she is pretty much useless so you take her to Konoha for all I care or you can have me take her back to Orochimaru?" Kabuto said as he looked at Jiraya. Seeing that Jiraiya not move a muscle he moved away from the two he reached in his pocket and threw down was appeared to be smoke bomb. As the smoke cleared Kabuto was nowhere in sight.
Slowly he made his way towards Tayuya with an unemotional look. With everything that has been happening today: waking up crushed between several tree trunks, dealing with some weird sadistic stranger, and now feeling nauseous from having her hair pulled so many times. She was exhausted, scared, and angry. The man with the long hair stooped down to eyes level and asked" So you are one of Orochimaru's?"
She looked at him with tears in her eyes and yelled "I don't know!"
He stepped back from Tayuya just in case she got aggressive.
"Since I woke alone then found myself with a devil in human flesh who wants to take me to what I assume is another demon! I don't know anything; who I am, where I am, and why I am here!" She sat on the cold ground scared and lone, well not completely alone. The man let her calm down since it seems like she had been through hell. Jiraiya isn't sure if this girl is telling the truth or if this is just a ruse.
"Tell me what happened" Jiraiya said calmly sitting down just a few inches from her.
Tayuya told him about waking up in a broken forest only to be dragged by Kabuto to take her to Orochimaru. She told him she wasn't sure who Tayuya was, but it was the only name she had been given she woke up. Jiraiya wondered if maybe the stress of her injuries caused her have some temporary memory lose or perhaps that plus God knows what kind of environment she had to live through in Sound. He wanted to believe her, but he didn't want to risk putting lives in danger for the sake of compassion. He wasn't sure how involved she was with Orochimaru, for her to be an elite means she probably had some blood on her hands. Turing her into Konoha would seem the best course of action, but it didn't feel right. No doubt they would have her executed or integrated (which is worse).
Standing up, he took a deep breathe trying to decide the best course of action. All the while Tayuya was watching him wondering what he was thinking about. Jiraiya looked down at the girl and stretched out his hand for her to take. All she did was look at the end nervously.
"I can give you a chance to live with some peace and away from most harm, but there is a condition." He said.
"What condition?" she asked.
"You have to trust me." He replied.
Tayuya wasn't sure if she should trust this person since the last guy was crazy. But after considering she has nowhere else to go, she reached for his hand hoping she was making the right choice. He took her hand to pull her off the ground and told her to follow him.
AN: So i damn near rewrote this chapter. Tell me how you guys like it. ^_^