Summary: Leaf's only immortal ninja, Kobayashi Shoko is released from her fifteen year prison and asked to hunt down Uchiha Madara, who happens to also be her brother-in-law.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Side Note: There's a picture of Shoko, her geta and her weapon in my profile if you would like to get an idea of her appearence. =)
One
Memories
"Hiko."
"Nani? That's a horrible name!" Uzumaki Kushina yelled before slapping a hand over her mouth. "Unless that's an ancestor's name?" She said sheepishly.
Shoko snorted. She was lying beside a rather large Kushina, gazing at the clouds. It was one of those days again. Kushina couldn't make her mind up on a name for the little tike and so often they would have days like this. They would come out to the empty field behind the Nara Complex and watch the deer and think of names; Hundreds upon hundreds of baby names.
"No. But I've already gone through all the good ones." She said with an exasperated sigh, "You had better pick a name for him soon, before he comes; otherwise I'm calling him 'Little Gaki' for the rest of his days."
"Him? Minato says the same thing. What makes you think it's a boy, eh?" Kushina asked, hoisting herself up on her elbows to glare suspiciously at Shoko. "Do you have some ability to see…inside of people?"
Shoko, who had her arm over her face, smirked. She heard a surprised gasp from Kushina before she snickered and shook her head. "No, but that would be…well actually it would be kinda gross."
"I think it would kind of cool."
"You would." Shoko mumbled. She didn't hear the usual indignant shriek or feel the usual, rather harsh punch in the arm from her goofy friend so she uncovered her eyes to glance over at her.
Kushina was staring off into the tree line with an unreadable expression. Odd coming from a woman whose expressions were limited to a huge grin and an oblivious look.
"Ano…Kushi-
"Wilyoubemychild'sgodmother?" Kushina blurted so quickly Shoko almost didn't understand. But she did. Shoko grinned.
"I thought you were going to keep him as far away from me as possible. I thought I was trouble. I thought-
"Oh come on!" Kushina glared.
"Of course I will." Shoko laughed, "Idiot." There was the usual indignant shriek and punch Shoko had been looking for. She smiled at the predictability and they soon began to bicker about whose hair was longer and who had prettier eyes. Who would look better pregnant, leaving Shoko a few more bruises for calling Kushina a fatass.
Though bruised and sore all over, Shoko wouldn't rather be anywhere else than here with Kushina, discussing random, insignificant things and going over baby names…for boys…because it was definitely going to be a boy.
Kobayashi Shoko opened her eyes. Just a dream…or memory. She wasn't in a grassy field, she was in the same spot, in the same position she had been in for the past several years.
She wondered just how many years it had been. Time was impossible to tell as far underground as she was. No one had come down this far in a few months at least and that had just been to make sure no water leaks had rusted the locks on her shackles. Even then, no words were spoken.
No one ever spoke. She often spoke to herself to remember just how to do it. She would speak to the rats but not even they came this far down.
She wasn't hungry anymore, though the first few weeks of starvation were some of the most painful weeks of her life.
Kushina wasn't alive. Her friend had died sealing the Kyuubi into her child. Into Shoko's Godchild, only two days before Shoko had been imprisoned. Minato was dead as well. His death was the reason she had allowed them to take her. For just a moment, she had no will to go on and that small moment in time was all Danzō and The Elders needed to throw her in here.
She hadn't been thinking of the child when she let herself be cuffed and dragged beneath the Interrogation HQ. She hadn't even heard what name they had chosen. Leave it to Kushina to wait until the very last minute. Literally. Was it a boy or a girl?
Eh, it was a boy, definitely.
It had been cold the day she was chained down here. Perhaps it still was. She didn't know anymore.
She wondered what the world was like above ground now. Was Hiruzen still Hokage? How had the war ended? Was the boy okay? Did he even know who she was? Did anyone?
Perhaps the old man had forbidden her name to be spoken. He would if Danzō had asked it of him. She already knew that was why no one had been down in the cage to speak to her. Hiruzen had been badgered during her 'hearing' and ultimately decided to keep access to the underground chambers strictly among The Hokage, The Elders and Danzō. For a while Danzō had come down, mainly to mock her but after a while, even he had grown tired of her silence and his visits became less and less.
And Orochimaru, her protégé. The boy she took under her wing, taught everything to. The man she shared a lab with. She worried for him. For months before the attack Orochimaru had been avoiding her. They had argument after petty argument and Shoko couldn't, for the life of her, remember why. She remembered confronting him and asking him, pleading with him to tell her what was going on. Why he had been acting to secretive but he only grew angry at her.
"You hear what they say about us!" Shoko screamed at him, pointing behind herself, "Why are they saying these things?" For the last couple of months Shoko had noticed the dirty looks, the whispers. She had heard what the civilians were saying. An enemy ninja had gone missing from the Interrogation Ward and somehow the idea of Orochimaru and Shoko taking him and using him for brutal experiments had found its way into their gossip circles.
He just smirked at her. "Orochimaru! What are you keeping from me? Please." She reached for his arm but he turned and grabbed a stack of scrolls from the table he had been working at. Anko had been quietly standing at the end of the room, tapping on the glass of a snake cage. She turned and glanced between the two.
"Let them talk." He said casually.
"Nani? I don't care what they say. Do you understand me? I'm worried about you. Are you- are you harming people?"
"Now why would I do that, Sensei?"
She closed her eyes, "Don't you start this. Don't start talking to me like I'm Hiruzen. Don't blow me off like this! I understand y-
"You do not." Orochimaru interrupted. He turned and began walking down the dark hall of the lab. She grabbed Anko's hand and hurried to catch up.
"I do understand. It's because of the jutsu isn't it? Because I refused to teach you how to cheat time…"
He stopped and turned to glare at her. Shoko felt Anko shiver at her master's cold stare but Shoko stood her ground, not about to let her own student intimidate her. "Isn't it?"
He let his glare linger a moment longer before smiling at her. "I admit to nothing."
Anger flashed behind her eyes and she raised a hand to slap him but stopped herself, her hand dropping back to her side. She couldn't bring herself to lay a hand on her student.
"Stop this." She hissed at him. "Whatever it is you're doing behind my back, stop. Hiruzen is getting suspicious and if he catches you he'll have you killed." Then she vanished.
That was only days before the Kyuubi attack. She knew he hadn't listened to her. He was stubborn and she knew he would do anything to get what he wanted.
Shoko sighed and coughed a few times before glancing over at the steady stream of water flowing from the roof of the cave like cage for the next few hours until she could once again fall asleep.
Shoko's profile page is in my profile so if you're wondering what she looks like you can go there, since it's a little early in the story and there wasn't a good place to share it. Contains spoilers past Ch 1.
Also, this story is a long one. I've already finished with several chapters but I'm nowhere near finished. So far I'm about 60k words in so don't start reading if you're looking for a one-shot! =P
R&R Pretty Please!
