Please comment and review! I hope you enjoy!
"Don't let her take it!"
"More reinforcements to the south gate!"
"Kill her!"
"The east tower is on fire!"
"She's headed for the south courtyard!"
"Surround her!"
Kirika dropped down and landed in a crouch. She sighed. The whole clan was there...
She was surrounded on all sides by dozens of soldiers. Kirika smiled and erected herself. She forced her katana from her stomach and shot it out her mouth at one of the soldiers. It sunk in between his eyes. The soldiers around him stared for a moment before slowly shifting their heads towards Kirika, wide eyed. She chuckled.
"Kill her!" A commander ordered.
They charged at her, Kirika's body went ablaze with purple fire, she leaped over them, using them as stepping stones to the soldier she impaled. Those she jumped on let out screams from the contact made by her burning shoes on their flesh. She gripped the sword from the man's head, stepping on his chest to keep the body down, and pulled it out. The soldiers nearest her stared in horror as she did it, some stared at their burning comrades. As Kirika gripped her Katana, it too was set ablaze.
Kirika's smile was feral and mad, extending two fingers, pads up, down her chin. She blew down her fingers and a viscous wind was created, blowing most of the soldiers into the air. With her blinding speed she slashed the remaining soldiers who hadn't been carried up before leaping up into the air, slashing and using the bodies as foot holds to push herself higher. All it required was one cut and the flames would finish the job. Kirika fell down and landed gently on her feet, crouching from the high fall.
She whipped her katana through the air to remove the film of blood that coated it. "Come out now." Sound ninja appeared in front of her. "Round up any survivors."
"Yes ma'am!"
Kirika knelt in front of Orochimaru, back facing him. He ran a comb through her long black hair. "There's no doubt. Good work gathering the Intel. The Enma clan is an acting Akatsuki base... and on our own doorstep." He said.
"We can't allow them any strongholds in the Land of Sound. Please allow me to dispose of them immediately."
Orochimaru was grinning. "Such a good girl. Yes my dear, destroy their pathetic little clan. Leave no trace of their existence... though they do guard something I'm interested in. A forbidden jutsu. Bring it back for me. Interrogate the heads of the clan privy to the Akatsuki's whereabouts and kill them. Do with the rest as you see fit."
"Yes father."
Kirika crossed her legs. She lounged lazily in her chair and looked over the captives before her. She'd set up in the main hall of the Enma compound. The survivors were mostly the woman and teenagers, not many young children. A shame. Children's bodies tended to be less resistant to experimentation... There were a few men, most of whom were injured from the battle. Kirika's men arranged them in a line in front of her chair, two Sound ninja stood on either side of the line, more stood behind it.
Kirika sipped tea. The men were silent or moaned from the pain of their injuries. Some of the women and most of the teenagers sobbed quietly.
The doors swung open. The remaining two Oto ninja dragged a woman in by the arms. She struggled against their grips to keep a hold on a screaming infant, pressed between her breasts by her hands. The woman's eyes were puffy, the side of her face was bleeding and bruises were forming, but she did not cry, rather, grunted and breathed sharply at every tug until she was thrown down at the centre of the line. The noise she made was something between a grunt and cough. As soon as they released her arms she clutched her baby to her chest tightly.
One of the ninja who brought her in smacked her on the head, she fell back from the blow. "Quiet your brat! You're in the presents of Lady Kirika!"
The woman clenched her eyes shut and rocked her child.
Kirika sipped her tea, eying the woman. She had brown hair. "Is that everyone?"
"Yes, my lady. She was hiding in the room beneath the cellar. Just as you predicted."
"You're certain?"
"Yes ma'am."
Kirika nodded. The blueprints and all secret rooms had been carefully charted before the attack commenced. It simply wouldn't do to have an Enma hiding away. Her eyes scanned the prisoners once more. "You all know who I am. You're clan has been taking a firm stance against Lord Orochimaru, my father, for quite some time now. And that's a discretion I simply can't stand for... you know how it is... Now, you may have heard stories of the horrific human experimentation my father preforms. Well, I am here to tell you that those stories are true. Consider yourselves volunteers."
There was silence in the room, looks of terror.
"YOU THINK I'LL LET YOU USE US FOR YOUR SICK EXPERIMENTS, YOU BITCH!?" One of the men jumped up. He made a lunge towards Kirika.
Kirika lifted an arm, palm up. She raised her tea cup to her mouth. A snake shot out from her sleeve. Mouth wide open, it dug it's fangs into the man's collarbone. He screamed in pain before collapsing. He'd managed to make it almost half a metre in her direction.
The snake slithered back to Kirika, nuzzled it's head in her dangling arm and hissed once at the prisoners. Kirika lowered the tea cup and smiled. She looked over the horror stricken faces of her prisoners. Oh, she loved it. The dominance she held over her captives was her sweet, sweet fix. "Why yes, I do."
The man gasped on the floor.
"Eager, aren't we. Don't worry, this one's venom isn't deadly." She chuckled. "Now then, I am nothing if not thorough. If anyone knows of any other hideaways, tell me now." She turned her head back and forth down the line. "If any of you reveal anyone we've missed, I'll kill you now. Believe me, death is much more merciful. I've been experimented on countless times. And it. Is. Horrific... No one? Very well."
The woman with the baby slowly rose to her knees. Her head stayed trained on the floor, her eyes shaded by her bangs. She slowly began unbuttoning her dirty, scratched blouse.
Kirika raised an eyebrow.
The Oto ninja moved with their kunai, but Kirika held up a hand to stop them. She watched, intrigued as the mother folded her shirt out on the floor and set her baby on top of it, so as to cushion it. She inched forward ahead of the line and stared up at Kirika. Her left eye was swollen from where the ninja hit her, but there were no tears in either of them, she set a scroll on the floor in front of her. The mother lowered herself on her hands until her forehead touched the floor. She bowed. "My lady."
"You may speak."
"My lady, I would gladly give you all of the Enma clan's guarded jutsu. I would gladly become a subject for your experiments. I would gladly serve you for the rest of my life. But I beg you! Spare my baby! Please my lady! He's not even two months old! Please! Send him to away! Raise him to serve you! It doesn't matter! But I'm begging you, please don't hurt my baby!"
The baby continued to cry.
She had brown hair.
Kirika frowned. She tisked. The snake under her hand flicked it's tongue. She looked at the mother. Piercing eyes. "The scroll, if you would."
One of her men handed it to her. She rolled it open, eyes flickered across the page. Her eyes returned to the mother. She slid the scroll into her pouch. "Take them away."
The ninja began dragging the prisoners out of the room.
"Please! Please! I'm begging you! Not my baby!" The mother shouted. She was seized again by a guard.
"Leave her." Kirika ordered in a dull voice.
"Yes, ma'am."
The mother grabbed her baby to her chest.
Kirika held the mother's wide eyes until they were alone.
"Well?" Kirika sipped her tea. "You have helped me. Shall I kill you?"
She squeezed her eyes shut. "Please... no."
"No?" Kirika chuckled. "Good answer. You're no good to me dead. Go. Share what you've seen here. Tell whomever you come across what happens to those who oppose Orochimaru."
The mother stood up quickly, she bowed. "Thank you, my lady. Thank you! Thank you!"
"You're blouse." Kirika called.
The mother grabbed it before running.
When Kirika left the compound, she left nothing behind but ash.
She did not return to the base with her ninja and prisoners. Orochimaru sent her to the Enma compound right before switching bases, taking Kabuto and Sasuke with him. Kirika would rendezvous with them at the other side of the Land of Sound.
She wondered briefly if the mother and her baby would survive on their own. One look and Kirika knew what she was. Weak... as a woman. But as a mother, fiercer than any of the ninja she'd killed. A devout mother with brown hair... Kirika had no qualm with enslaving the survivors, but the whole idea of the fierce young mother saddened her.
Kirika took out the scroll the mother gave her and tossed it into the bushes. It was an Enma clan jutsu. Not the forbidden jutsu Orochimaru wanted. Kirika had retrieved that before she'd even begun her attack.
Kirika stared out at the scenery of the Land of Sound. It was as calm and pretty as ever, the rice fields reminded Kirika of tiles. It was early afternoon when she approached the main base. She stopped and looked down into the stairway of the underground base. Her woes were forgotten and her face was the picture of delight. Orochimaru was waiting for her in the doorway. She ran to him, stopping a few feet in front of him.
"Father!" She took out the scroll and held it out to him. "The Enma clan's jutsu."
"Excellent." He took the scroll. "And the clan?"
"Ash. The ones who survived will make wonderful test subjects for your experiments."
"Good work, Kirika."
She stepped forward into his chest. Orochimaru returned her embrace and stroked her hair, a jesture he knew she liked. "Welcome home, child."
"Yes." Kirika smiled and buried her head in his chest. "I am home."
Kirika sighed happily at the warmth of the bath water. Her gaze flickered to the clothes she'd been wearing, dirty but neatly folded. She would wash them tomorrow.
Her pocket watch sat near her head on the ledge of the bathtub, playing the song. Kirika reached an arm out of the water and lazily flipped the watch up to the portrait of her family. Hideko would disapprove of the brutality she'd showed the Enma clan. She would disapprove of many things Kirika did. But she would be happy that Kirika spared the woman. Conscience was a concept Kirika had a warped grasp on. She tilted her head and gazed at the picture.
She stood up and dried herself before donning a kimono.
Kirika ran her hand over the walls as she wandered through the halls of the base. The cool stone felt nice, she could feel every little bump and crack sliding under her hand. She wandered to make sure that none of the candles had gone out. They had to be checked quite regularly. It was quite inconvenient. Eventually she came to the door of the training room. She knew she'd find him there. Sasuke was practicing his punches and kicks on a wooden training dummy. Kirika smiled, his back was to her. She slipped behind him and wrapped one hand around his neck.
He stiffened in surprise and quickly had a kunai pointed at her. Kirika jabbed the fingers holding the knife before he could stab her, making him drop it.
"I'm back~"
He sighed and lowered his arm. He pulled her hand off his neck before spinning around. "Quit surprising me like that. One day I'll end up hurting you."
Kirika's response was a snicker.
"I mean it."
"You're going to hurt me when I can get behind you so easily?" Kirika wore amusement in her eyes and a feral grin. She was behind him again. "We shall see."
Sasuke sneered. If his sharingan were activated he could have been able to track her movement. The Viper and that speed of hers. "How'd your mission go?"
"Excellent. I'll tell you about it later." Kirika prodded his shoulder and began massaging it. "You're muscles are tight. That's no good. You need to be flexible. You'll pinch a nerve someday."
He sighed happily.
"Does this feel good?"
"Yeah." He turned around and pulled her into an embrace. "I'm glad your back."
"Ah, a woman's work is never done." Kirika danced away from him. "Come on, let's get you loose."
"In your kimono?"
Kirika span. "Do you like it?"
"Yeah. You look good."
"I'm glad you think so. Now, I want you to dodge my blows."
"You're improving."
"Of course I am."
Kirika chuckled.
She and Sasuke sat on the steps of the training room eating boxed lunches of rice and beef and vegetables. The food was tasteless.
"It's bland." He remarked
"Well, we can't exactly buy spices." Kirika sighed "I miss my mother's cooking."
"Yeah. I miss your mother's cooking, too."
He put his hand over hers. Kirika's hand remained where it was. She smiled, eyes calm.
"You look tired, Kirika."
"I've been sleeping better than usual." She sighed. "But I've been having the craziest dreams."
"About what?"
Kirika looked at him. "Running into a cave. I think there must be a monster inside, but I have to go in."
"That it?"
"The long and the short. It unnerved me, and I wake up without feeling rested..."
Sasuke looked at Kirika with a puzzled expression. "If you want my two cents on the matter, I think you should quit experimenting on people."
Kirika snorted and laid her head on his shoulder.
"I mean it. And you should stop letting Orochimaru experiment on you. It's not good for you."
Kirika laughed.
"You've done well, Kirika."
Kirika smiled. "Thank you, sir."
"Sasuke's training demands my attention, otherwise I would be attacking the Akatsuki myself." Orochimaru put a hand on her head. "My girl, what would I do without you?"
Kirika beamed.
"I'll continue to rely on you."
"I'll do everything in my power to make you proud."
"I know you will."
"Father? If I may, before my next mission, I'd like to visit the labs."
"Oh? That's right. You're quite frond of that test subject here." He chuckled. "What kind of father would I be if I said no?"
Kirika pulled back her hair and tied it tightly. Her kimono sleeves rolled up and tied, she donned the appropriate apron and face mask and scrubbed her hands sterile. Adrenaline ran through her fingers. She'd waited a long time to experiment on this subject again. He was one of her favourites.
"The sedative's been administered and the subject's prepared, ma'am." Kabuto said. A boy, Hozuki Suigetsu was laying unconscious and nude, strapped to the metal table in the lab. He was a troublesome one, always turning his body into water whenever they tried to experiment, so he needed to be put under before they could do anything. But it was worth it. Kirika had never seen a kekegenkai that allowed the user to completely turn into liquid. Kirika selected a sedative that put him to sleep, rather than paralisis. She was kinder to the subjects that held her interest.
Kirika nodded "Good work. Let's begin."
She began cutting into the boy's chest with her scalpel. She cut at and stitched the blood arteries near his heart. It was a long, arduous and messy process, and the lab began to reek of blood; not that the scent from the last experiment ever really faded. "Hold the skin open."
Kabuto sighed, watching her dig into the subject's organs. "The human body is really quite amazing..."
"Hmhmhm, this body is quite amazing." Kirika reached for a syringe, filling it with a red chemical and injecting it into the boy's heart. She removed the needle and scalpel and put them on a tray. The syringe would need to be disposed of and the scalpel cleaned. Kabuto sewed the incision shut.
Kirika tinkered over chemicals on the desks. "Kabuto, kindly return Hozuki to his cell, and bring out another test subject. Someone less important." Kirika smiled. "I'll be seeing Suigetsu again quite soon."
"Yes ma'am."
The next subject Kabuto brought in struggled against his restraints on the table, or tried to, at least. The sedative Kirika gave him rid him of his mobility. She wanted to monitor the pain levels now. He screamed. "Let me go! Please! I'm begging you!"
Kirika dismissed him. "Oh hush now. I only need you for a moment."
Kabuto gagged him.
"Ah, thank you." Kirika set a syringe of clear liquid on the tray, what she withdrew for the current moment was her katana. Kabuto stepped back. Kirika poised her blade and sliced the subject's arm clean off. He screamed louder.
Kirika wiped the blood off her blade before taking the syringe and injecting it into the skin above where the subject's arm had been severed. His eyes rolled back in his head and he went quiet. It must have been quite painful, indeed.
The flesh began to fizz and bubble out of the stump of his arm. It rose like sea foam, twisted and writhed, and began to take shape. Kirika's eyes were ablaze with delight. His arm had regenerated.
After cleaning the equipment and scrubbing herself she drew up a report of the experiment, which was delivered to Orochimaru. The report was, of course, incomplete because it was too soon to see if it had worked or failed. Kirika would monitor the subjects for the next few weeks until the effects were completely finished.
It had become quite late. Kirika taken off her kimono and and sandals in favour of a white under-kimono, which she used for sleeping. The light in her room was out and she lay in bed, facing the wall, breathing calmly.
Kirika was on the edge of a forest. It was warm and cloudy. She took a breath and gazed around. There were mountains; the forest was growing on mountains. She could not see the peeks. A veil of mist was rolling over the mountains, clouding the forest. She stared forward into the forest, mystified. Through the silence, she could faintly hear her pocket watch's song playing: the Song of the Autumn Crocus.
'Hsssss'
Kirika slowly turned her gaze down. A white snake wrapped around her feet.
Dazed, she returned her gaze forward. Her head tilted back. She was moving; traveling through the forest at incredible speed. But she was not running. She was standing still; the forest around her appeared to speed past her.
Everything stopped suddenly. And everything was still. Kirika gazed forward. "What..." She whispered. Her voice was an echo. A ripple. "What is this place?"
She stood at a brick wall leading into a cave. The wall is covered with moss and corroded from time, but it still sturdy. There were a few arched doorways in the wall, and glassless arched windows. She could not see what was inside the cave; through the openings there was only darkness.
The snake was still coiled around my ankles. It hissed and slithered away from her to the entrance of the cave. It stopped and just stared back at Kirika then continued onwards into the darkness.
A whisper: 'Come forward.'
Kirika took a step; and then another. She stepped slowly to the mouth of the cave. Her gaze never faltered, she did not look around, but continued in a daze. She stepped a few feet into the cave and froze; unable to move on further. Kirika's breath caught in her throat. She looked back, she was still in the light.
And suddenly, she broke out into a run.
Kirika's eyes shot open.
She sighed. "That dream..."