Her feet moved swiftly through the ankle-deep snow that covered the ground of the forest. With every exhale of hot breath came a thick, white puff of fog in the cold winter air. How long had she been running? It felt like it had been years though she knew different; it had been only hours since she snuck onto the roof and escaped from the balcony of Orochimaru's research facility. The fool had forgotten to put a bind on her chakra when he released her from her chains this morning and she was not about to let this opportunity slide through her fingers again.
It had been at least 8 months since she had seen the outdoors and since her last escape attempt; it was still warm the last time she managed to sneak away from the serpentine bastard, and since she had not been let out in so long all she had were her light training clothes. A short sleeved black shirt with a mesh cutout on the midsection and black sweatpants clung to her body along with her ninja sandals. The cold was bitter against her pale skin, she was sure if she survived she would be frostbitten, but it was a chance she had to take. Her legs were growing numb and slowing her down as she stopped and leaned against a tree, catching her breath. Grabbing a red ribbon from her pouch, she gathered her waist-length brown hair into a high ponytail and tied it tightly, pushing her bangs out of her face. Until now she had been oblivious to how long her hair was getting, it had been almost a year since she had a haircut.
A twig snaps in the distance and she clings to the tree she's been resting on, bringing her hands up in preparation to make handsigns. She focuses her hearing, listening for any noises that sound out of place. Just as she's about to declare the area safe again, the sound of shurriken whizzing through the air causes her to duck and roll in the snow. Three razor-sharp shurriken hit the tree and stick right where her head would've been. She looks up just in time to see a sound ninja, no doubt one of Orochimaru's mindless drones, finishing a set of handsigns, and in the blink of an eye he's disappeared. She reaches back to her pouch, grabbing a kunai from it, but as she reaches her hand back she feels a hand grip her wrist tightly.
"You really have some nerve trying to escape again. To think Orochimaru-sama was starting to trust you," crooned a familiar voice, one she immediately matched to Kabuto Yakushi a.k.a. Orochimaru's right hand man.
He twisted her wrist behind her back, using his free hand to swiftly hit the back of her neck, hoping to knock her out. As his hand made contact with the back of her neck, he was enveloped by a puff of smoke and suddenly she was gone, leaving a log in her place.
"A substitution jutsu, eh?" Kabuto smirked evilly to himself, pushing his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. A snow-covered bush rattled in the distance, alerting Kabuto of his prisoner's position. "You're a clever girl, but not quite clever enough," he said as he drew a kunai from his pouch, readying it. He lunged at the bush, finding it empty, much to his dismay.
"Why don't you just give up? I'm sure Orochimaru-sama will accept you back with open arms. You are his favorite toy, after all," he yelled.
The sound of footsteps crunching in the snow behind him caused him to turn, barely giving him enough time to dodge her kunai's cut. It slices through the collar of his shirt and barely nicks him. He dodges as she stabs at him a second and third time, then grabs her wrist and squeezes with all of his chakra-infused force, causing her to drop her weapon.
"You should know I'm not that easy," she says through gritted teeth, spinning into a roundhouse kick aimed right for the ninja's head. Her sandal makes contact with his temple, knocking him backwards; but like she did before, he disappears in a puff of smoke.
She picks her kunai from the snow, standing in an offensive pose as she tries desperately to hear him or sense his chakra to no avail. From a nearby tree she hears him yell out: "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Suddenly she is surrounded by his shadow clones. One by one she fights them off, some of them landing hits but each one disappearing into a puff of smoke with her attacks. One shadow clone manages to kick her kunai from her hand, and as she turns to grab it two more clones grab her arms and slam her back down into the snow, consequently knocking her head against a tree stump that had been hidden under it. Her vision grows blurry and a small puddle of blood forms under her head as three Kabutos stand over her, two clones and the real one. The clones dissipate as he releases his handsigns.
"You really have improved since the first time I watched you fight. No wonder Orochimaru-sama favors you over the others," he laughs breathily. Straddling her midsection and sitting on her stomach, he grabs her chin and forces her to look at him. "Now, wouldn't it have been much simpler to just come along quietly?"
"Fuck you," she spat painfully, trying her best to exert confidence and ignore the searing pain in her skull. He smirked devilishly as his grip on her chin tightened.
"My, what a vulgar vocabulary. That's no way for a lady to speak, you know. I really ought to punish you for that."
"Lay a hand on me and you'll be Orochimaru's newest experiment," she threatened half-heartedly. She knew she was replaceable, she knew Orochimaru didn't need her - but he wanted her, and perhaps the thought of the possible repercussions would be enough to stay Kabuto's hand.
"On the contrary, I've been given explicit permission to take you by whatever means necessary, and my only instructions were to make sure you were alive. He never said that I couldn't rough you up a bit," he laughed as his hands grabbed her wrists.
"G..get off of me," she stuttered, not from fear but from the cold seeping through her thin clothing and the blood she was losing. He gave her no reply as his hands lit up with a blue light around her wrists, rendering her paralyzed and unable to defend herself. He sat back and laughed as she struggled to move her arms, her tender, bruised skin shivering in the cold air.
"You're pitiful, but I'd be lying if I said you weren't attractive," he said as his hand trailed down her neck and onto her chest. "Which I'm sure is another thing Orochimaru likes about you," he purred as he grabbed the kunai she had dropped earlier.
He slid it under the hem of her shirt, dragging the tip of the blade deathly close to her soft flesh as he tore through the thin fabric. Her face became panicked as she realized what he was about to do, but her freezing cold skin, blood loss and paralysis were making it hard to fend him off. His hands pried at her bandaged chest.
"I'm sure Orochimaru-Sama wouldn't mind if I helped myself, don't you agree?" He whispered huskily into the helpless kunoichi's ear.
His hand slid down her trembling stomach and teased the elastic of her sweatpants. A sudden spike in chakra caused him to stop in his tracks. He looked up at his victim, her eyes squeezed tight and her lips trembling. It wasn't her, she was too scared. Helpless. But now he couldn't sense any other chakra signatures in the area. Slowly he stood, holding her kunai in one hand while he scanned the area. A kunai flew through the air and plunged into his back causing him to scream in pain. Reaching back to grab it, his hand feels a scrap of paper attached to the cold metal knife.
"Shit!" He screams, pulling the knife out and quickly chucking it in the direction it came from. It sticks into the trunk of a tree in the distance, and Kabuto leans down to grab his prisoner. Jerking her up by the arm, he throws her limp body onto his shoulder and take off in the opposite direction.
"What the fuck is-" she starts, but is cut off by a huge, fiery explosion.
Trees are on fire, the snow is melting, and from the plume of black smoke comes three running figures. Two men and a girl from what she can tell.
"Don't you worry, I'll get you back home safe," he says with a smirk. Focusing his chakra into his feet, he climbs a tree and drops her onto a thick branch. "Don't move," he says. "Oh, wait. You can't! I'm hilarious," he says as he jumps down to the ground.
"Asshole," she breathes, still struggling against his paralysis jutsu.
In the distance she hears fighting, presumably between Kabuto and the three she saw running after them. She feels a spike of chakra just like before and the paralysis seems to weaken, allowing her finger to move just a bit. With every jutsu he uses and every hit he takes, Kabuto grows weaker and his hold over her weakens as well. Finally she is able to move her arm, and excitedly she moves it around in an attempt to get the feeling back. One wrong, over-excited movement causes her body to slip from the edge and she tumbles from the tree, smacking into the trunk and several branches. She hears something in her stomach snap. Just like that, she hits the cold ground and falls unconscious.