I don't own Naruto.
…Do I seriously need to say that? I don't live in Japan, I'm not a man and I can't draw to save my life. How could I be Kishimoto?
Aw well. Legalities.
Title: Masquerade
Rating: T
Summary: He follows her, watches her, waiting for the day when he can show her his real face and see her own.
The girl was not anything special to look at.
Pretty, in a delicate, bird-like sort of way. Graceful, certainly; she walked with her back straight and she never put one foot even slightly out of place. Her hands, small things that they were, remained firmly clasped together and did not shake. Her eyes, bright green and so lively, remained on him the entire way to her room (cell). He could not see them, mind you, but Kabuto was a good shinobi and he knew when someone was watching him.
Her claims were ridiculous, even with the interesting bit of proof she offered. No one could see the future, because there was no future to see before it was made. Anything is possible and that little girl did not have the knowledge of infinity in her gaze.
Courage? Oh my, yes. In abundance.
But courage was useless without power and that girl, that delicate little flower that he uprooted from that tiny little village, had no power at all and it would not be long before she realized that. How she learned what she did would likely be interesting, maybe even interesting enough to prolong her life for five minutes when Orochimaru-sama got bored with her, but nothing more than that. Then she and her sister were his to open, his to pull apart, and that was far more interesting to Kabuto than nebulous claims of things that could be.
Kabuto locked the door behind her and gave her one day to live.
He went to her in the morning, ready to pull apart that web of illusions she had crafted the night before, and was instead forced to rethink his opinion of her.
One piece of impossible knowledge was… conceivable. Perhaps Jiraiya had followed Orochimaru-sama and Sarutobi that day, and had seen their exchange in the graveyard. Perhaps he had passed by Futari one day and gotten drunk. Perhaps he had found the event strange enough to repeat to a green-eyed waitress.
Perhaps.
But two? Two events she had no business knowing of, with details that bordered on disturbing?
No, not coincidence or chance. She had something else up her sleeve.
He still did not believe that she could see the future – such a thing was abhorrent to him, as were all things he could not categorize – but she was getting her knowledge from somewhere and Kabuto was becoming deeply intrigued (and annoyed).
Who was she, that filthy little peasant, to make him doubt himself? She kept her knowledge of what of he was, who he was, to herself for weeks before that one slip that led to her current predicament. All that time she had served him drinks and glared cold ice at him, but he had laughed at her behind his polite smiles and thought nothing more than 'overprotective sister. Good instincts, though.' But no, it was more than that. She had known him as Sound, not Leaf, and he was starting to believe she knew a lot more about him than that.
He did not like that.
Orochimaru-sama, however, did.
Kabuto relayed the girl's words to him, her recitation of their fight against Tsunade nearly three years ago, and his master had smiled, all sharp teeth and long tongue.
"And how did she seem to be affected when she told you this?"
"Honest, in the beginning. Later on though, she began to stretch her words a bit. She seemed incredulous that what she had seen actually happened, particularly your claim to bring Tsunade's brother and lover back to life, which I find odd if she really has been having these visions long enough to believe everything else they've shown her so far."
"Very interesting," Orochimaru-sama said. "Kabuto, that girl grows more intriguing every time she opens her mouth."
"What are your wishes regarding the… arrangement?"
(He's not going to dignify it by calling it a deal. Those are made between equals.)
"She's kept her end, yes? Why not let the two girls get some time together?"
So Kabuto finds the nearest lackey and sent him off with instructions to bring the girl to the cells for some quality time with her pseudo-sister.
(Because he was fairly certain he would do something unpleasant to her if he saw her just then. Scientific curiosity, you understand.)
The next morning was slightly better.
There were two reasons for this.
1 – He could finally begin his experiments. Nothing too exciting, of course. He had to keep her able to talk, coherent and (more or less) healthy, but it was a start. As for the more… in depth examinations, well, they did have two prisoners. And it was not like anyone had ever taught the girl to see through an illusion.
And 2 – they were moving on to another base. Kabuto tried to be ambivalent about his surroundings, but the labs in this particular location were really not up to his preferred standards. It was always such a chore, doing his work in places with substandard equipment.
He gave the girl a ragged kimono from some long dead and long forgotten patient (or perhaps it had been experiment), some female products taken from one of the kunoichi lingering on base and left her to clean herself up while he prepared the lab. It was probably the first bath the filthy thing had had in over a year.
The girl, that was.
He knew it was rude to tease, but she just looked so serious sitting there and tensing up every time he moved. Oddly, that was all she did, though. No whimpers, hardly any flinching and, amazingly, she never asked him to stop. Fragile, but stubborn. What a fascinating combination (which would probably get her killed before very long).
But far more fascinating was her body; that bizarre, freakish biology of hers. No chakra system at all! He could never have imagined how such a thing would work, but there was an example right in front of him. And it did work, which was so amazing as to be worth keeping her alive for a few more weeks.
(The other, brattier girl? Not so much.)
He was going to spend weeks, months pulling Akane-san apart. Gently, delicately, softly peeling away her skin, her fat, her muscles, her bones; invading her cells and following that beautiful, deviant biological process. So what if it had no applicable usage that he could see? It could have one someday, but more than that, it was interesting, and that was getting rarer and rarer those days as Kabuto had to devote more time to healing Orochimaru-sama's failing body and less time locating new test subjects.
And who knew? Perhaps that coil of pure spiritual energy in her head and the flow of pure physical energy in her body really did come together to give her some kind of time-space piercing sight.
(Haha, not likely.)
"As for your… request, I'll arrange for you to meet with Orochimaru-sama tomorrow morning," Kabuto continued talking, intentionally disregarding the terrified look on Akane's face.
"But why tomorrow?" The girl protested tiredly, "Hana doesn't have anywhere to sleep. I told her I'll provide her a futon tonight-"
"Because, as I already mentioned this morning, we are moving," the man only sighed, in a delightfully patronizing manner.
"… Moving? Who is moving? And where? Wh-"
"Stop," he cut her off, "You will be told what Orochimaru-sama thinks you need to be aware of. Orochimaru-sama, Sasuke, you and I are moving to another location. That's all you need to know for now."
"And Hana?"
"…Yes. Hana as well."
(Every time the girl would mention Hana from that point on, Kabuto would look back on the day in the lab and think, 'well, I never actually lied, did I?' He wanted to sink his hands wrist-deep into this fun new organism and Orochimaru-sama wanted some answers about Akane-san. Either way, some mysteries were just too fun to ignore.)
When the time came to move, he insisted on carrying her for the journey.
She weighed nearly nothing at all; all skin and bones. Her long hair was the only trouble, flipping everywhere as it did. That was soon solved by tying it into a loose knot.
He paused when he did. Her hair was surprisingly soft. It clung to his fingers like raw silk and he knew, from the texture and the length of it, that she was more than likely attached to it. It made a certain kind of sense. Dirt grubbing peasant that she was, she likely did not have many possessions of her own.
He wrapped the long brown strands around his wrist and wondered, fleetingly, what she would look like, if she woke up to see that he had shorn it all off.
…Something for the future, maybe.
Another day, another hide-out.
One bright note – Akane-san was going to meet Orochimaru-sama during his breakfast and make her request.
(He wished he had a camera.)
It was everything he had hoped. The confusion-fear-pain-understanding that flitted over her face when that apathetic, cool mask she wore so often fell away made his morning. She left the room almost running, her whole body screaming with the focus it took to maintain her slower pace.
(He wondered what it would take to make her break down and cry.)
Time passed.
The girl lived, which was surprising. She remained somewhat useful, which was staggering. Almost everything she spoke of remained in the 'interesting, but useless' category, but every now and then she would let something slip, something Kabuto knew she would wish back the moment she discovered that it was actually valuable.
Her privileges grew, something Kabuto was sure only happened because Orochimaru-sama enjoyed seeing her walk freely through his halls, an inch from the exit if she wished, but utterly unable to leave without her Hana.
(Hana was not actually in the base, of course. That just made it funnier.)
The new kimono suited her, he would say that. The color complimented her skin, which had become much paler now that she was not in the sun all day, and the obi showed off her trim figure. It was a good thing she had been declared off-limits, Kabuto knew. Many (most) of the ninja in Sound were… unsavory, to put in mildly.
Sasuke-kun seemed to have accepted her presence (for the most part). He even took lunch with her most days, which was cute (in a pathetic, feeble way).
She had requests every now and then; simple things, like paper and ink, or, once, a flower from outside. That one cost him a great deal of effort to simply smile, instead of laughing.
It was occasionally irritating being civil to her all the time, but she had no intention of letting down her mask first and Kabuto did not intend to lose his before she did.
(It was not a contest they were playing at. Really.)
(A contest would imply that both sides had a fair chance.)
And then comes the day when he knows she is going to die.
Painfully.
The girl had given Orochimaru-sama some information – on Akatsuki, no less. One of the reasons she still lived – that enabled him to sneak a few ninja into Sunagakure during an assault to steal some rather valuable scrolls. Sadly, only one of the targets was acquired. The other team was noticed, attacked and decimated. Only one young boy had managed to escape and, from the look on his master's face, Kabuto had a feeling that the death the boy had escaped would be catching up to him very shortly.
How sad.
And then the girl walked in for her morning 'prediction' and had to throw herself in danger's way.
Stupid thing.
He tried to warn her, he really did (he had not seen her real face yet, it could not end yet), but the fool just would not listen. And after Orochimaru-sama banished him from the room, well, that was basically that. The thought that he would soon be able to inspect her vital organs in detail was somewhat consoling, but he had not yet finished the finer data gathering to be had from a live subject.
(Hana did not quite count any more.)
Except.
Except the girl did not die.
He was walking back to the reception chamber (throne room. Who was he kidding?) and she was right there, pressed up against the wall by one Uchiha Sasuke and once again an inch from death.
She was also looking very depressed.
Not scared, not like any rational being would be, but simply sad and hollow.
How delicious.
It did not take much to calm Sasuke-kun down, as much as he could be calmed, and send him on his not-so-merry way. The girl did not stick around any longer than he. Kabuto watched her go and a small smile tugged at his lips.
It was not much longer after that when he began admitting a few things to himself.
1 – He had no idea how the girl was getting her information.
Hana-chan had told some very interesting things and the girl herself had told some very fantastic ones, but he could bring himself to believe neither. Both were utterly ridiculous. However, no other data was presenting itself. So, in the absence of an alternative, one of them must be telling the truth.
He did not much like the implications of either one's words.
2 – The girl was fascinating.
It was not attraction. Nothing so base as that, oh no! It was simply the burning, itching need to know that manifested whenever he had her on his table. And whenever she spoke. And whenever he watched her walk through the halls.
She stood firm when others would have bent, she spoke up when others would have stayed quiet, she kept herself alive and comfortable when others would have been dead or in a cell; she always knew how to speak and what to say to come out of the situation in one piece, if not ahead.
She believed herself to have some semblance of control over her situation, and had somehow managed to endear herself (it was the closest word he could think of) to Orochimaru-sama to allow him to indulge her in that.
Kabuto was not sure how much of it was the girl herself and how much of it was her situation. He had not paid much attention to her in Futari and had never had such a circumstance arise in Sound for comparison before.
Either way, he wanted to know more.
And 3 – She could be the single most profoundly irritating creature on the face of the planet.
So… she knew about his association with Sasori.
Fine. He could accept that (barely).
She knew the location and time of his meeting with Sasori?
Annoyance.
Still, given that she knew that much, perhaps she knew a bit more.
Kabuto had never been shy about grabbing any opportunity available to him.
The conversation was enlightening.
It was the most extended talk they had ever had, his light chatting with her in the lab not counting.
So she still wanted to live, to be free, even after all this time? How very stubborn. Maybe it was her quasi-freedom in the halls. Very few prisoners had kept their spirit this long behind bars. And it was very nice, seeing that polite mask falling away for a bit. Were she anyone else, he would likely do… things for some of what she had said. "A disillusioned man spending his days in a society of corpses?" Such rudeness!
Still, he managed to get several digs in of his own.
(And drugging her was rather funny, too.)
Then came the bridge and the Leaf nin and oh my, so many fun things.
The girl had known about them. It never failed to interest Kabuto when something she predicted came true. He suspected it always would, until he had found out her method and torn it apart for examination. That was the usual way of things, though.
They went back to the base with a new addition (how long would Sai-kun last? Kabuto had a feeling about him. Three weeks?) and found the lovely young lady talking with Sasuke-kun. She had been crying, clearly, and Kabuto felt a flash of anger that he had not been there to see it. What had she looked like when she wept? Who did she turn into when the mask was gone?
The anger that came when she saw Orochimaru-sama was good, yes, but it was not best. He could not see all of her when she was so focused on one emotion, when she used her wrath like a cloak just as she used her manners for the same. It was not enough. It showed another side of her, but it was not enough.
And she was attacking Orochimaru-sama, which meant his fun was going to end.
Sasuke-kun was only delaying the inevitable by holding her back (but why was he even doing that much? What had passed between them while he was away?) and Kabuto knew her life could be measured in hours. The long wait for her death had finally ended.
Shame.
Except that was still the girl who had kept herself alive for three months under Orochimaru-sama's poisonous gaze.
Except that was still the girl who knew what would come before it did.
So, the girl escaped.
It would make a decent fairy-tale, he supposed. The fair maiden taken by the evil henchmen, kept locked away from the sun by the wicked demon, and saved at the last hour by the valiant heroes.
Except she would never see her sister again, the Leaf did not look kindly on anyone related to Sound, and Orochimaru-sama was spitting fire to get her back just on principle.
(Out of all the set backs caused by enemy nin other the years, theft of his personal property always made him angriest. Kabuto saw the irony, even if no one else did.)
Later, he would ask Sasuke-kun why he had not assisted them with chasing the enemy ninja.
Later, he would help his master pack up what few things they could not leave behind and assist in the rapid destruction of the base.
Later, he would be issuing orders to various Sound ninja to keep an eye on the paths leading to Konoha, telling them to grab a certain green-eyed girl if the opportunity arose.
(He did not think it would.)
She had known things and she had done her best to keep anything useful from his master. Now she was with those who worked against Orochimaru-sama and, perhaps, the information she began to give would not be so mostly-useless. Perhaps the Leaf would listen to her, the strange girl from Futari. Perhaps they would not.
Kabuto was used to wearing a mask. It was useful, particularly when you did not know what your own face looked like. Well, your real one, at any rate.
Now that girl was away from them. …Would she take her mask off? Kabuto hoped not. In truth, he really rather doubted it. The illusion of safety would just make her cling to it that much harder. Good for her, because Kabuto had a theory. The theory went – her face now is not what it was when she came here. Her face is something hideous and scarred and cruel.
Kabuto somehow did not think he would meet that girl again, but he hoped otherwise.
Because he wanted to be there when she took off that mask, that 'Akane' mask, and found what he and his master had made her into.
He really did.
Dear God, this the fic that WOULD NOT FINISH!
Background info: The Price of Living, by LovelyWeather. Go read it. Now.
It's essentially a realistic version of that standard 'high school girl gets dumped in Naru-verse'. And it is not happy. At all. Very entertaining and well written, but not happy.
This story makes absolutely no sense is you haven't read TPoL first. It likely doesn't much sense even if you have, which brings me to my next point.
I really don't like this fic.
For those of you wondering why I haven't updated since 2011, well, here's your answer. I would pull up the Microsoft Word document and then just STARE at this fic until midnight, then give up and go to bed. When I started it (also back in 2011), I had the whole thing planned out. Then, somewhere along the way, my inspiration vanished. Kabuto wasn't creepy enough, the idea behind the story wasn't visible enough, the words weren't working, the ideas weren't flowing, I couldn't remember how a scene went, etc. Even the title seems wrong to me.
It was hell.
I finally decided to just power through, get it done, and then maybe go back and change it later when I didn't feel like screaming at the sight of it. If any of you have some ideas or constructive criticism to give me, have at it. It's what reviews are for and it's what I need.
To LovelyWeather – SO sorry A) for taking so long and B) for doing such a bad job of this. I really like your story and wanted to play with the universe you made, but when I stuck my fingers in the waters of creation, something came and bit me.
Maybe I should stick with my own works for now.
Anyway, to any readers of my other works who are watching, I'll be working on them now. Shouldn't be long.