I got the idea for this fic from a hilarious edit of a pic of Orochimaru, the one that makes him look like a woman. The idea of Orochimaru having a daughter and what she might be like stewed in my head for several months before I started typing. So here it is people.
Hatake Kakashi looked across the dark cell. At first, he thought it was empty, and that all their effort to try and retrieve Orochimaru's failed combat experiment was wasted. Then Hyuga Neji pointed. "There." he said quietly.
"Alive?" Neji nodded. Kakashi lit a flare and walked carefully towards the far corner. Finally he could see it (Orochimaru's notes had made no mention of gender) curled in a fetal position on the floor. The others, Sakura, Choji, Guy and a masked ANBU member prepared for attack while Kakashi carefully reached out to shake its shoulder with his spare hand. He could hear nothing from it, not even the sound of breathing, and as he gripped its shoulder it seemed completely lifeless for several moments. Then suddenly it began to cough violently, gasping and fighting for breath as desperately as a drowning victim suddenly able to breathe again. It rose to hands and knees and began hacking up mucous gone gray with dust and age. It finally slumped against the wall and looked up at them through its black hair. Its eyes were yellow on black, demon eyes. Kakashi waited silently for it to speak or move. It did speak, extremely hoarse and hesitant.
"Light." was the first strangled word he understood. "Please, give me the light." Sakura lit another flare and Kakashi held his out. The creature took it with a shaking hand and held it close to its face. There was silence again for a moment. "Is Orochimaru dead yet?" it asked, staring him in the eye.
"Not quite" Kakashi said lightly. "We were wondering actually if you might be interested in helping us with that." It turned its eyes back to the light.
"Yes." It paused and looked at him again. "Bring me out to the sunlight and I will die for you, or for anyone you choose, so long as you oppose Orochimaru."
"Will you live for us, and submit to a seal to ensure your obedience to the Hokage?" It dropped its eyes, as if considering. "Live for you?"
Neji answered. "You will live the rest of your life as a slave to someone else's wishes, doing whatever you are asked to do under threat of the seal being activated." Kakashi could tell he still did not approve of the plan, and the deception, even for a being that might be completely demon, with no humanity left.
"I will do as you wish."
The creature showed no sign of pain as Kakashi performed the sealing technique. The blood from the Hokage he had brought with him had contrasted starkly with the creatures skin, which was as unnaturally white as Orochimaru's had been. The seal took the form of the Konoha leaf emblem on its forehead. Kakashi still had no idea whether it was male or female, neither its manner nor thin body covered with rotting rags gave away any clue. "You are called Scion, right?" It nodded. "Well then, let's get you out of here Scion." Kakashi figured it was about time they finished their raid. They had only a few hours left before Kabuto was due back from his trip. It would be obvious that they had stolen Scion, with all the empty cell doors cut off their hinges and all the research notes missing from the file cabinets. Information from the files would no doubt be useful in their struggle against the evil now led by Kabuto, but taking and sealing Scion had been their main objective.
Earlier raids on other facilities had yielded intriguing information about this one of Orochimaru's demon-human hybrid experiments. Orochimaru had hoped to minimize the humanity of the result, producing a more powerful soldier. Instead every subject of the altered process had died but one, and that single survivor could not have been termed a success. Orochimaru had written "Scions regenerative abilities are very interesting, but overall strength and chakra control are inferior. Scion completely lacks the ability to use ninja and mind control techniques. Attempts to train Scion in taijutsu have resulted in ten attempts to kill the instructor, most likely the result of mental instability. Scion is deemed ultimately useless as a host. Scion is occupied with domestic duties."
Scion walked unsteadily for the first few feet to the door, but was soon walking swiftly and confidently a few steps behind Kakashi. "Sir, have you disabled the exit trap?"
"Exit trap?"
"It was set only to trigger on a return trip from the cells. I do not know if it is still there or not." The team searched, and found a suspicious crack in the ceiling, but no concrete evidence of a trap. "Allow me to go first then, just in case." Kakashi nodded his approval of the idea. If there was no longer any trap, then there was no harm done. If there was a trap, they would have the opportunity to assess Scions ability. Scion walked forward towards the door and leapt aside as a heavy blade slipped through the crack. The blade was rusty, but still sharp enough to cut off Scions left arm midway between wrist and elbow. Black liquid flowed out immediately and chased the arm down, catching it before it hit the ground, then quickly pulling back up to rejoin the severed ends. The liquid disappeared in less than a minute and Scions arm was whole, the only sign of the injury a thin pink ring of blood. Kakashi took Scions arm and wiped off the blood with a thumb. There was not even a scar, or a scratch beneath it, and Scion seemed to have full use of the arm.
"That was amazing!" Sakura exclaimed. Scion shrugged, clearly unfazed by the injury. "It shouldn't have taken that long, I guess my chakra is getting low." They continued outside to where the second team, all ANBU, were waiting. Choji generously handed Scion one of the snacks he always carried.
"Food?" Choji nodded. "Arigato". Scion clearly had trouble swallowing, as its esophagus and stomach seemed to be in much the same condition as its lungs. Kakashi handed over his canteen.
"Drink as much of that as you think you can keep down for a while." Scion nodded and was able to finish the rice chips with the waters help. It seems Scion suffered from starvation before the stasis that kept him or her alive kicked in.. His suspicion was confirmed when Scion fainted about five minutes later, as they were preparing to leave. They had already planned to carry Scion if they succeeded, so they simply took turns carrying the demon hybrid.
They were nearing the border of the Rice Country when Scion finally woke up. Sakura was taking her turn at the time and Kakashi heard her talking to Scion. "When we camp we'll see what we can do about getting you washed up, okay? I've got an old dress with me you can wear until we get to Konoha if you like." "Hai. That would be really nice." So Scion is a girl then. As a medical ninja, Sakura would be able to tell. I can stop thinking of her as an it now! Sakura was true to her word and heated water for Scion to wash with that night. She looked much more human, with her hair washed, the dirt gone, and wearing Sakura's dress. She also looked a great deal like Orochimaru, with long black hair and the same long nose and unnaturally pale skin. She was only able to eat about a cup of broth with rice before she insisted that she couldn't possibly eat anymore.
"We really should stay here for another hour or so. Even if Kabuto is coming after us, he's at least 2 hours behind us, even assuming he's faster than we are. Scion badly needs the rest. Her chakra is being burned up as almost as fast as she can generate it just to keep her heartbeat and breathing going. Eating and sleeping are the only things she can afford to be doing right now so she can build up a reserve. She really is in much the same condition Gaara was when he was brought back to life." Sakura told him.
Kakashi considered. "In your opinion as a medical ninja, will moving out now kill her?" Sakura shook her head.
"It seems more like she would go back into that stasis coma, if she gets stressed enough. It looks like a natural defense, along with the regeneration."
"Then we go in 15 minutes. Tell the others." Sakura didn't move. Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow.
"She will need broth again in two hours. Plan to stop long enough for me to cook it." she said firmly.
"The leftovers?" he asked.
"She's going to be eating that in one hour."
"Very well." he agreed reluctantly. Sakura left to prepare to go. It wasn't that Kakashi didn't care about Scions condition, the girl was clearly not in as good of shape as she looked, but more that he knew they could not afford a confrontation with Kabuto or even one of his subordinates.
A/N: Still no reviews! I am open to constructive criticism. Is it confusing? Are the paragraphs too long? Tell me!