A/N the day I own Naruto is the day that I am a sulphur crested cockatoo.

Chapter 1

Sasuke was having a bad day. Not only had his menkyo sharingan not appeared, meaning that Naruto had survived. But when he had come to a farm and tried to steal some food to replenish his low chakra and boost his low energy, a girl in her early teens had came out of the farmhouse with a Bo staff and proceeded to give him the beating of his life.

Sasuke woke up face down on a worn old mattress. His entire body hurt, especially his head, ribs and curse mark. He felt someone bandaging his arm, there was also something soothing being rubbed into his shoulder. His eyes flicked open and he saw a tall, pale, raven haired teen with her fringe coming down to almost the end of her nose.

"You awake?" She asked, a smile spreading across what he could see of her face. "Great. That means I don't have to baby feed you any more." The smile broke into a full fledged grin. Sasuke rolled over and propped himself up onto an elbow as the girl stepped back.

"Who are you?" he hissed, wincing in pain as the pain in his ribs flared up.

"My name is Mayumi. What's yours? Or do I have to make up one?"

"Mayumi! Are you talking to yourself again or has the person you hurt woken up?" a voice called from a nearby room.

"Yeah, he's awake." She turned to Sasuke. "Do you like tomato soup? I hate it and Chiasa's made heaps of it."

"Yes, thank you." He winced as pain burned around his curse mark "the name's Sasuke."

"Well, I'll go get you some Sasuke."

With that Mayumi got up and walked out of the room, dusting her hands off on her black pants as she did so.

Sasuke sat up on the mattress and looked around for his shirt. He spied it hanging off a chair in a corner beside a chest of drawers with a photograph on top. As he picked up his shirt his attention was snatched up by the photograph. It was a picture of the girl -Mayumi with a person in an orange spiral mask; the picture must have been a few years old as Mayumi looked younger. Sasuke stared at the picture, transfixed.

"That's Tobi."

Sasuke spun around suppressing a grunt of pain as he did so. Mayumi was standing in the doorway holding a bowl of soup. "He's the person who took the curse mark off your shoulder."

That got a major reaction out of Sasuke. "What!" he hissed

Mayumi put the soup down beside the picture. "Tobi was stopping over- he'll coming back over tomorrow- when you tried to steal some of Chiasa's veggies. I thought you were a ninja so I attacked you, well and truly hurting you. I felt bad so I brought you inside and started fixing you up when Tobi saw the curse mark." She shrugged and scratched her head "He got really mad. Which is really weird because Tobi never gets angry. He then started growling about the crazy snake man... what's his name?"

"Orochimaru?" growled Sasuke. He couldn't believe this.

"Yeah that's it. Any way, Tobi used a super-cool jutsu and sort of exploded the seal. It kinda gave you a fever and that's why you've been unconscious for the last few days but Tobi said you'd be ok." Mayumi smiled at Sasuke placatingly.

Unfortunately it didn't work.

"Asshole!" he yelled and swung a punch at her head, sharingan blazing. Somehow Mayumi slipped underneath the punch and gave him a whack in the ribs, right where she had hit him hard a few days ago.

"What? What'd I do? If you want me to undo all the fixing I've done I can just fix just hit you a few times. The breaks are only starting to heal."

"I was supposed to train with him! With out the curse mark, he probably won't want me now! How will I get stronger that bastard?"

Mayumi jumped backwards to get lots of room between her and Sasuke. "Why not ask Tobi? He's the strongest ninja ever. Otherwise he might be able to put the mark-thingy back in you."

Sasuke just sent her his patented glare (the one he usually reserved for Naruto) "do you think I'm an idiot? If he was as strong as one of the sannin wouldn't he be famous?"

"Tobi? nah. He's more of the play around and be unnoticed type."

Sasuke stepped back, forcing his clenched to relax. "Fine." He spat.

"Now how's about we sit down and have some food?"

"Have you two finished arguing?" called a sharp voice from another room.

"Yes, Chiasa." Mayumi called back.

"Then bring our guest into the dining room, if he's well enough to argue, he's well enough to eat at a table."

Mayumi shrugged at Sasuke and picked up the tomato soup and carried it out. Sasuke remembered that his shirt was in his hand and painfully tugged it on before following.

Chiasa was a short well-built woman with long brown hair and tan skin, she looked nothing like Mayumi. She saw Sasuke frown as Mayumi showed him to the dining table and she decided to explain.

"Tobi brought her to me several years ago; he saved her from a group of bandits. He's also sent us a little money each month to help with the bills."

"Not to mention he's here showing me cool stuff more often than not and Tobi says when I'm fourteen I can come with him." Butted in Mayumi

"Only if you can defend yourself to his standards"

Mayumi turned to Sasuke "I'm turning fourteen next month but I'm gonna try and wheedle Tobi into taking me when he comes next. I've gotten really good at my jutsu and stuff!"

Sasuke gave her a sidelong look as he sipped his soup. "Jutsu?"

"Yeah. Mostly fire ninjitsu but some other elements. Lots of different taijutsu. Not as much genjutsu, I'm not really good at it. But I can break it really easily."

There was a knock at the door and Chiasa went to answer it.

"Tobi! I thought you weren't going to be here until tomorrow!" she exclaimed when she saw who it was.

"Hello Chiasa. I thought I was going to get here tomorrow but then I realised tomorrow never comes." Said a man in an orange spiral mask. He turned to the table where Sasuke and Mayumi were sitting. "Hello Mayumi, I see your friend is awake. What's his name?"

"Tobi!" Mayumi raced over and gave him a hug. "His name's Sasuke." Her voice lowered to a semi whisper. "Between you and me, I think he's a little mad at you for removing the curse mark."

"I wonder why?" he murmured. Walking over to the table where Sasuke was finishing off his soup, he asked "so why do you want that curse mark?"

Sasuke glared at Tobi. "For power. I am an avenger. I must avenge my clan at all costs, no matter what. Orochimaru has offered me this power and I have accepted."

"Are you aware that he'll use you as a body?" Tobi asked nonchalantly, as if this was just local gossip.

"It's obvious that he wants you for your body."

"Eww! Tobi! That sounds so gross!" moaned Mayumi

Sasuke frowned. He knew there was going to be a catch to his training with Orochimaru, but he hadn't expected this. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"As in the only way Orochimaru has lasted this long is by taking the bodies of others and using them as his own. With the jutsu he uses he could very well live forever, as long as he's not killed in battle that is."

Mayumi thought Sasuke's look of disgust and horror was identical to the one on that must have been on her face. Then that look turned black, blacker than any thundercloud she had ever seen.

"He's going to pay for that." Sasuke growled. Turning to Mayumi, he asked "you said Tobi would train me, right?"

"Yeah..."

"Then I want it."

Mayumi opened her mouth slightly then closed it and silently pointed to Tobi.

"Will you?" asked Sasuke

"Yes." Tobi answered and Sasuke was sure he was grinning underneath that spiral mask of his.