My first version of "A new life" sucked. So I re wrote it, and this time for the first time in fanficiton history, (At least I think) a female Manda! So R&R! I don't own Naruto
The purple snake Manda was sound asleep in her own realm, dreams of delicious meat and humans floating around in her head.
"Mmm, smells so good." she muttered in her sleep as an image of an enormous t-bone steak crawled into her mind. Her dream self was about to take a bite, when suddenly, the image was sucked away from her reach and out of site.
"Hey! What the heck?!" Manda roared. Both of her eyes snapped open in furry of what could have disrupted her pleasant dream. In front of her, lay the familiar sight of Orochimaru, the snake sanin rested in his chair, with the white haired Kabuto at his side. Her head rose until her's and Orochimaru's eyes were level.
"WHATS THE MEANING OF THIS INTERUPTION?!" screamed Manda.
"COULDNT YOU SEE I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF A GOOD NAP?!" Kabuto took a step back. Orochimaru raised his hand for silence.
"Calm yourself Manda, I have a small assignment for- Orochimaru said only to be cut off by a furious Manda.
"NO! I"M SICK OF ALWAYS HAVING TO DO YOUR JOBS! I'V HAD JUST ABOUT ENOUGH OF YOU!!" Before the snake sanin could raise to battle stance, Manda lunged forward and sank her razor sharp teeth into Orochimaru's neck.
"LORD OROCHIMARU!" Kabuto screamed in horror. After an agonizing moment of suffering, Orochimaru went limp in Manda's jaws. Orochimaru, one of the legendary sanin, was dead. With a grim smile, Manda dropped the corpse of Orochimaru to the ground and turned her anger filled gaze to Kabuto.
"Manda, please! Have mercy!" the frightened ninja pleaded.
"Sorry, your not worth sparing." Manda hissed. With that, she clamped her jaws down onto Kabuto's neck, enjoying the tasted of his blood as it drained into her mouth. When she abandoned Kabuto's body and was about to burst out the door to freedom, the door burst open. Two ninja dashed in, kunias in hand.
"Whats happening in here?" demanded the first ninja. But it took only a second to spot the two lifeless body of their former leaders.
"Oh nothing," hissed Manda.
"Ridding myself of an annoyance." The two guards eyes were flooded with horror as their eyes drifted to the bodies, and Manda's blood dripping fangs. For a second, nobody said anything, until the silence was broken by one of the guards.
"S- since Orochimarus dead, who will be the leader? He had no successor, besides Kabuto. (Whose now dead)" a smile spread on Manda's lips after hearing that.
"You've given me an idea." she announced.
"I'll be the leader." The guards looked at her in curiosity.
"I was gonna just leave, but leading the sound village, now that sounds interesting. The guard tapped his chin for a sec before saying.
"Well, you knew Orochimaru most, so you might make a good leader."
"Good." Manda said.
"First order, dump these bodies." They both nodded. They threw the corpses on their backs and walked out the door with them, leaving Manda alone. She eyed Orochimaru's chair in interest. She slithered over to it and sat herself down in it and curled up into a tight mound.
"Hmmm... no wonder you sit in this chair, so comfortable." She was just about to doze off, when a low growl filled the room. She looked around to see what it was, only to find it was coming from her own stomach.
"I'm starving." she groaned. Normally when her stomach begged for food, she would wait days for Orochimaru to pay her with her sacrifices, and she was fed up with waiting.
"I think I'll go hunting." She crawled out of her new chair and went through the already open door. In the hall, the two guards had just returned from dumping when they saw Manda slithering out of the room.
"Where you going lord Manda?" asked one of the guards.
"Going for a little hunt." she answered.
"Be back in a day or two, favorite spot is near the leaf village." the guards nodded, and she turned and vanished on a turn. A second later, she was facing the wall of trees that stood in her way of the leaf village. She reared back and leaped through the air. She landed on a branch and began bounding from branch to branch to the leaf village.
The next morning...
Manda had just settled down on her favorite branch that overlooked a large game trail. Constantly, whole groups of large deer would come wandering on the trail, in perfect range of Manda's fangs. After getting comfortable, she settled in for what seemed to be a long night. The hours crawled by as Manda sat in the tree, waiting for something to wander by, ready to pounce at any moment. But nothing had come at all. It was growing dark, still nothing. Manda sighed at the non successful night. She shook the tiredness out of her eyes, but before she could make the leap into the trees, a sound below her halted her. Excitement shot through her as she looked down, expecting a deer. But it was no deer. When she got a better look, it turned out to be a boy. And the most noticeable thing about him, that he was crying. Out of curiosity, she slid down the tree's trunk silently to get some facial details. He had spiky golden hair that looked like a yellow fire, little whisker marks lined the sides of his cheeks, and he looked only to be eight years of age. The boy was walking through the forest alone. With his hands in pockets, and was sobbing uncontrollable. Usually Manda wouldn't give a crap, but this was only a small boy. She slithered to the ground and began slithering silently behind him, hiding herself behind trees as she moved. After a few more feet, the boy sat himself next to a tree and buried his face in his hands. After a few moments of watching the boy, she suddenly asked.
"Whats wrong little boy?" The boy yelped in surprise at the voice.
"W- whose there?" the boy whimpered.
"Where are you?" Manda slithered slowly out from the cover of the trees in sight of the boy. His little blue eyes were suddenly wide with horror as he laid eyes on her. Manda started sliding toward the boy.
"Go away!" the boy wailed.
"Please go away! Please don't eat me!" Manda chuckled at his plea.
"Why would I eat you?" she asked. A confused look appeared on the boy's face.
"If I was gonna I would have by now." She lowered her head until their eyes were leveled.
"You have a name?" Manda asked again.
"N- Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto answered.
"Yours?"
"Manda." she said behind a sweet grin.
"I'm from the Sound Village, and I was just on a little hunt when I saw you here." Manda settled down next to the boy, who was suddenly unafraid.
"Now tell me," she said.
"Why were you crying?" Naruto struggled to find his voice.
"B- b- because of this village!" he shouted sadly.
"Everyone hates me! They all treat me like a demon for no reason whatsoever! I'm always getting beaten up for nothing! The only one that even shows me respect is the Hokage, and nobody else!" With that, he fell back into his hands and began sobbing again.
"I hate this evil place! I hate it! Hate it! Hate it!" After a second of loud sobbing, Manda started rubbing his little head with her tail.
"Thats so unfair for someone your age, or anyones age." Manda said softly. She held the small boy in a loop of her long coils as he cried.
"Why would they do that to someone like you?" she asked.
"I- I don't know. Nobody will tell me!" Naruto sniffed.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" she asked. Naruto whipped away a few tears and said.
"Well (sniff) unless you could eat everyone in this damned village, then I guess not." he answered between tears. Manda thought for a moment, rubbing the bottom of her jaw in thought.
"Are you sure you don't know why?" she asked again.
"I'm dead sure!" Naruto snapped. Manda rose up in front of Naruto.
"Well... if you say theres nothing I can do to help, then I guess I'll be on my way." When she was about to turn to slither away, she heard Naruto ask.
"You said... your from the sound village right?" Manda nodded.
"Is it... far away from here?" Manda turned to him and answered.
"Well its in the rice country, so its pretty far." And when she was just about to leave again, she was hit with yet another question.
"Is it a powerful place?" Manda thought for a moment.
"Yeah you could say that." she answered.
"Why ask?" Naruto tried to answer, but all that kept coming out was a stutter.
"W-well..." Naruto couldn't find it in him to answer. Manda stood still for a moment, before saying.
"Well, goodbye. Hope to meet again." Manda then clung herself to a tree and begun to slid up. But before she could make it to the top, she felt two little hands snag on to her tail.
"WAIT!" squealed Naruto. Manda looked bellow her to see a little Naruto clutching her tail.
"What?" Manda asked.
"I was wondering... M-Manda, i- if I could..."
"Could what?" asked the snake impatiently.
"M- may I... come with you?" Manda stared at him with curiosity.
"You? Come with me?" she asked. Naruto nodded gently.
"Please! Take me with you! I don't have anything in this village! No friends! No family! NO NOTHING!" Naruto collapsed on to the ground, tears once again pouring out his eyes.
"I JUST WANT TO GO TO A PLACE WHERE I CAN BE ACEPTED! PLEASE!" After a moment of endless wailing, Manda's tail stroked across the boy's cheek, brushing away the tears.
"I don't see anything wrong with it." she said softly. Naruto's eyes suddenly lit up.
"Y- you mean?" he asked.
"Yes," Manda answered.
"You'll make a fine addition to the village. With a little training, I'll make you the finest ninja in the sound village."
"R- really?" Naruto asked again.
"Yes, and I'll also make sure that nobody says any hateful word behind your back." Manda added. Just as fast as he started crying, Naruto jolted forward and threw his arms around Manda's neck.
"OH THANK YOU MANDA! THANK YOU!" he screamed. Manda chuckled.
"My, your hug is as tight as mine." Manda gently pushed Naruto off her.
"Now, if you really want to join me, then gather your belongings and meet me at the village gates in about thirty minutes, understood?" Naruto nodded. Manda smiled. With that, she began slithering off until she was consumed from site by the maze of trees.
"Oh thank you!" Naruto screamed in his mind.
"Finally I can leave this damned place!" remembering her words, he got up and started making his way to his apartment. But little did Manda or Naruto know, they were being watched. Up in a tree about couple hundred yards away, Kakashi Hatake had been stationed on a tree branch at least ten feet off the ground. He had observed the whole scene.
"This doesn't look good." he said to himself.
"What would a snake like her want with a boy like Naruto?" Unfortunately, he was to far to hear what the were saying, even for Naruto's shouts, but he was sure it was nothing good.
"Best to inform the Hokage." he said again. He turned and started bounding through the trees at a quick rate, desperate to get to the Hokage tower.
Old Sarutobi was sitting at his desk, his face shrouded from view by mountains of paper work. He was just moving on to another sheet, when a loud knock on his door caught his attention.
"Enter." he said irritatedly. In entered Kakashi.
"Greetings Kakashi," said the old man.
"What brings you here?"
"Lord Hokage," answered Kakashi in a worried voice.
"We might have a bit of a problem."
"What?" asked Sarutobi.
"Your aware of Orochimaru's snake Manda, right?" Sarutobi nodded, shuddering after having to refer to his once young pupil Orochimaru.
"Well I spotted her in the woods nearby, even more alarming, I saw her talking with Naruto Uzumaki." Sarutobi's grin was replaced by a concerned and worried look.
"What did they say?" Sarutobi asked in a demanding voice.
"Wasn't close enough to listen in on them," Kakashi answered.
"But I got a feeling it wasn't any normal conversation." Sarutobi tapped his chin as he thought for a second. After a minute, he turned to Kakashi and said.
"Go find Naruto, find out what hes up to."
"Right away my lord." Kakashi responded obediently. He turned and headed out the door. On his way, he passed Iruka.
"Why the rush Kakashi?" Iruka asked in his usual calm voice.
"I need to find Naruto," said Kakashi as he screeched to a stop.
"Naruto? What for?" Iruka asked again. Kakashi hesitated before answering.
"Lets just say we wanna avoid any sound village entanglements." A concerned look grew on Iruka's face.
"I'll come too." Without a seconds hesitation, Iruka followed in behind Kakashi in the search for Naruto.
The little yellow haired boy was heading for the gates now. He took with him only two things. A backpack containing few pairs of clothing, and no intention of turning back. The gates were just in site, when Naruto was stopped by two pairs of feet behind him.
"Naruto." said one voice. Naruto spun around to see his teacher Iruka, and Kakashi who he wasn't familiar with at the time.
"I saw you with that snake Manda, so you better tell us what it is your planing."
"Why should you care? No one here cares for me here." he answered.
"Naruto what are you talking about?" Iruka asked calmly.
"I have nothing here!" growled the boy.
"All I've wanted was a normal life, but no, this place refused to give it to me! So just to make you all happy, I'm leaving with Manda to the sound village."
"The sound village?!" Kakashi almost yelled. As Naruto began to walk off, Iruka grabbed him by the arm, not letting him move.
"There is no way we're letting you pull that off Naruto!" snapped Iruka.
"Hey! Let me go! Let me go!" yelled Naruto as he tried to wiggle from Iruka's grip.
"Your place is here in the leaf village." said Kakashi.
"Hes right," Iruka agreed.
"I SAID LET ME GO!!" Naruto screamed.
"We're never letting you leave your home to a place like the sound village!"
"Would you two just let him make his own choices?" growled a voice from above. Before Iruka could react, a long purple tentacle slammed into the back of Iruka's neck, sending him flying forward through the air until he collided with a wall. He slipped down the wall and fell to the ground, where he lay unmoved.
"What?" yelled Kakashi in confusion. Suddenly, a large purple serpent hit the ground next to Naruto with a loud thud.
"No wonder Naruto hates this place." growled Manda again.
"Even the shinobi here don't give a damn about him." Kakashi fell into battle stance, kunia at the ready.
"So, Orochimaru sent you here for Naruto I suppose?" asked Kakashi. Manda laughed.
"That old fool? Pfff! I could care less what he says!" Manda snorted.
"I was just on a little hunt when I found him. After telling me everything this village does to him, I would never allow such cruelty to someone as innocent as him." Kakashi still eyed her suspiciously.
"And why would I get anything for that lizard Orochimaru when hes dead?"
"What? What do you mean "dead"?" Kakashi demanded.
"Thats right, I killed him and his precious Kabuto." said Manda.
"There were both old fools anyway."
"So, my once young pupil is gone now?" a voice stepped in. Kakashi turned to see the hokage walking towards them, sadness swimming in his eyes.
"Yeah you could say that." said Manda. A long, sad sigh escaped Sarutobi.
"Naruto," he said. Naruto stepped out from behind Manda slowly, avoiding the third's eyes.
"Naruto look at me." Naruto lifted his head slowly and gazed back at the hokage.
"Is it true your leaving the village with Manda to the sound village?" Naruto replied with a small nod.
"Why ask? Is it a problem to you?" Manda asked.
"Of course its a problem!" snapped Kakashi.
"Why? Why is it a problem then?" asked Manda.
"Whats so bad about letting him go somewhere where he'll be excepted?"
"If its to do with the sound village then we'll never allow it!" said Kakashi.
"Kakashi, be quite." ordered the hokage, Kakashi went silent.
"Well..." started Sarutobi.
"I'll put it this way. Naruto has something I him that we've been desperate to keep out of Orochimaru hands, but hes to young, to small to know what it is yet." Naruto looked at him cursorily.
"Something in me? What?" Naruto asked.
"As I said, you won't be able to take the truth Naruto, you must find out on your own." answered Sarutobi. For a long moment, nobody spoke. Until Manda broke the silence with.
"Then I guess this explains everything." she hissed.
"Come Naruto, time to go." Naruto nodded. They both turned and began moving away. When they where out of site of Sarutobi and Kakashi, Kakashi stepped forward with.
"What are you doing lord hokage??" Kakashi demanded.
"You know the dangers of this!" Sarutobi raised his hand for silence.
"Now now Kakashi, its for the best." the old man answered.
"Manda has no desire to attack the leaf village, I know her, even with her beastly attitude, she would never use an innocent boy for destruction." Kakashi was speechless at the hokage's decision.
"And best of all, Naruto will be a fine ninja in the sound village, and he'll be safe there as well." Even with the comforting words, it was nowhere near enough to flush away his saddens. He sighed.
4th hokage, why?" he thought sadly.
"Why did you have to do what you did? Why?" Just outside the gates, stood a long purple snake, and a small yellow haired boy.
"Now before we go any further, I want to give you something." said Manda.
"Ohh what?" Naruto asked.
"Hold out your arm." Manda said.
"My arm?" asked Naruto.
"Just do it, it won't hurt." Naruto slowly drew out his arm.
"I order for me to give this to you, I'll have to give you a little bit." Naruto whimpered softly at her words.
"But it won't hurt, don't worry." Manda drew out her long fangs and sunk them gently into Naruto's arm. Naruto winced a bit after felling them enter his skin. Like Manda said, it wasn't painful, but it felt real weird. When she removed her fangs, a little mark appeared on Naruto's neck. It was like a spiral with three little dots surrounding it. (And I don't mean Sasuke's mark)
"What did you do?" Naruto asked while rubbing his arm.
"I gave you the mark of my clan." answered Manda.
"Your clan?" Naruto asked.
"When I heard you say you didn't have a family, I knew I had to do something about it. So I gave you that mark on your neck. It symbolizes that your of my clan." Naruto eyes widened.
"You mean...?" Naruto asked.
"Yes, your now one of my kindred. In other words, welcome to your new family." Naruto almost didn't believe what he heard.
"Oh thank you Manda, thank you!" said Naruto, rubbing the mark on his neck.
"Don't mention it..." said Manda.
"...my son" Manda lowered her head to the ground.
"Hop on." she said.
"We have a long way to the sound village." Naruto swiftly jumped on Manda's back.
"Now hold on." Manda reared back once more and hurled herself towards the forest. Soon enough, she was leaping from branch to branch at a quick pace. As Naruto looked behind them, he saw the leaf village vanishing into the blanket of night. A smile spread onto Naruto's face. As he was abandoning the hateful village, and starting a new life with his new family of serpents, in the village hidden the sound.
Done! Better than last time! Not so sure when im gonna update again, cause im Working on Betrayal of a leaf, but ill try to soon!
