Hello, fellow readers! This is the story that's been taking up all my time, that I've been writing for quite a while now. I really hope you guys like it!
The hallways were cold and damp, and even in my sweater I couldn't help but shiver.
"Let's go," He gruffs, pulling my arm harder, almost yanking it out of my socket. I know by now not to let out even a hint of a whimper, so I keep as quiet as I can as he roughly leads me back to my room. When we finally reach it, he unlocks it, opens to the door and throws me in. Unlike most nights, he actually steps inside with me, and shuts the door behind him. It's dark in there, for only a little glimmer of candlelight illuminates the room. I look to him, a disgusted look slack on my face. He cocks his head to the side, taking a few steps closer to me.
"Did you eat well, Ayaka?" He asks, a smirk of a smile on his face. I don't answer; just glare at him. As he's long since used to this, he takes this to no offense, and instead chuckles and waves me off.
"You did well in your training today, Ayaka," He goes on, pacing back and forth slowly in front of me. "But," There was always that 'but' with Kabuto. You'd never hear something genuine and just sincere from him without something nasty or a complaint behind it. "Lord Orochimaru-sama wasn't happy with your…mercy." He continued, quickening his pace and making it so he walked around me. I calmly walk away from him, choosing to sit on my bed.
"Do you not care for Lord Orochimaru-sama's pleasure?" He asks, after some while. I glare up at him.
"No," I reply tersely, the only word I've uttered to him pretty much the whole day. He chuckles and shakes his head, pushing up his glasses, which I knew to always be a bad sign. The three poison needles came out quick, fast, but I so easily avoided them, and instead of their target, they banged into the cold cement wall. I look back to Kabuto unamused and he's smirking.
"Good," Is all he says. Then, he stares at me for another second or two, and then leaves the room, locking it behind him with a click. I grumble at him, pick up the poison needles and toss them in the trash, then, I lay onto my bed to catch a goodnight's sleep – or as good a night's sleep as I'll ever get.
Training the next day was tiring, and it was lunch time, so I sat under my favorite tree in his whole entire hideout area. The in-bloom sakura tree next to the little pond. The air just seemed so…free. I'd long wished to leave Orochimaru, to journey out and see the world. The place I wanted to go to most? The village Hidden in the Leaf, Konoha. It was the only major village I've ever known – Orochimaru always talked of destroying it, and when Sasuke came here, he'd mumbled about it a little. It was me who'd told him – who'd practically forced him to go back and to stay away from Orochimaru. Of course, he'd left after only a week, and I'd been happy, happy to have saved someone who would have lost everything. Of course, Orochimaru had been furious, but, instead of sending more people to go back for him, he hid his hatred and promised that he'd come back to destroy Konoha once again, this time for good. But, that hasn't happened yet, and it's been three years since that's happened. I was now sixteen years old and my desire to leave was greater than ever. The way the Konoha ninjas set out to save Sasuke, risking their lives for someone they all probably didn't care about much, and even that last kid, the whisker-faced guy, how he'd fought Sasuke to unconsciousness even after Sasuke had betrayed him was the way I'd wanted to be cared for. I wanted to go to the infamous Konoha and start over.
"Ayaka," My head twisted up and I side-sweeped the kunai that, if I had not dodged, would have stuck into the back of my neck. It was Kabuto, of course, acting as big a smart ass as ever as he approached me. "Back to training, come on," He helped me up, and led me back to the training area, which had been cleaned up from my last battle training, and now was filled with more, new sacrifices. I looked to Kabuto, to find him smirking down at me.
"Lord Orochimaru-sama was highly displeased after he saw that you had only killed forty out of the hundred trainers. You didn't even hit the other sixty in major areas so that they would bleed to death. Needless to say, if you don't kill all one hundred this time, he will lash out…" He wanders off, thinking he'd frighten me. I laughed at his poor knowledge of me, and I saw Orochimaru's dark silhouette appear atop the rock he always sits on when watching me train. He slowly raises his arm, and flicks his wrist outwards, signaling the men to attack me, and they heartily obey, flinging themselves at me.
When it was finally done, I'd done the thing that would annoy and irritate Orochimaru the most; I killed not one of them.
Tonight was the night, the night I'd been waiting for all my life. I'd been beaten as punishment for not obeying training orders, and stuck in my room for the rest of the night without dinner. But tonight, I could escape. I'd been imagining escape plans for years now, and I was finally going to do it. I know which way Konoha was, and if I traveled quickly enough, I'd be there within a day. My room had been the easiest to get out of, the actual hideout? The hardest. But, I'd made it, and was on my way to Konoha Village.
I was finally here. Finally, after all those years of dreaming, I was standing in front of the gates to Konoha Village, walking right in because the two 'guards' were sleeping like logs, snoring all too loudly. I was fascinated by all the lights and the whole town just in general. My stomach was growling like a lion that hadn't been fed, so I dug into my pocket to count the money I'd stolen from Kabuto's room. It was about fife thousand dollars, so I decided I could afford to eat out a little. I looked around until I'd found what I'd wanted, and slipped in, fitting in my own little table.
"Hey," The waiter says as he comes to take my order. "You sure you're old enough?" He asks, when I tell him I wanted some sake. I nod, and say "of course" and he shrugs it off and leaves to get it for me. I was on my second cup when I'd heard her.
"Shizune, I just want to come in here, and sit, for a little bit while I do my work," A beautiful blonde lady walks in that I recognize instantly. I'd seen her pictures in Orochimaru's hideout, hidden deep with his old stuff that he had when he'd actually had a soul. They'd been teammates, and the last one of the team was Jiraiya.
"Then why can't you sit elsewhere, Lady Tsunade-sama?" Encouraged the black haired assistant who apparently, was Shizune. Tsunade groans and rolls her eyes, waving her off and taking her seat at the table in front of me. Shizune dumped the load of books and scrolls from her arms onto the table and sat down opposite of Tsunade.
"Bah, Shizune-san let me be alone for a little while," Tsunade orders. Shizune answers "You'll just drink, Tsunade-sama." To which Tsunade waves her off and grumbles something I couldn't hear. They talk for a little bit in quieter tones before Shizune finally does get up and leave, with a promise to "be back within two hours,"
Of course, as soon as Shizune is far enough away, Tsunade orders a cup of sake which is quickly delivered to her. After I'd finished my two cups of sake, I picked up and left, holding no more interest in studying Tsunade. It was chilly outside, but I liked it, and I walked off, wandering quietly into the woods until I found what looked to be a training area. I was running my hands along the log when all of a sudden I felt a presence, and jumped up into the air just in time to dodge three shuriken headed straight for me.
I glanced over to see a dark silhouette. I jumped down from the tree I had caught onto and landed slyly on my feet, casually walking towards him, a smirk upon my face.
"Who are you?" He demanded his voice deeper than I had remembered.
"You don't remember me, Sasuke?" I asked as he stepped from the shadows to show his face in the moonlight. These past three years sure had been kind to him, but that arrogant smile hadn't left.
"Ayaka," He says, his smirk widening. "What're you doing here?"
I give him his smirk back, and, instead of answering him, disappear into the night. I had been looking for a place I could sleep for the night when she'd appeared.
"Did you really think you'd enter my village without my knowing, little girl?" She'd asked, spooking up behind me.
"No," I say, then turn around calmly to face her. When she sees my face, her eyes widen and she takes a step back, out of shock. "Orochimaru's daughter?"
I narrow my eyes and growl under my breath, but control the feeling within me. I'd hated when people knew. But, of course Tsunade knew, she'd seen me once before. She takes a more defensive stance and narrows her eyes back at me.
"What are you doing here?" She asks cautiously.
I roll my eyes and say "Oh relax, Tsunade-san, I'm not here to spy on Konoha for Orochimaru or anything for him, actually." Her expression doesn't change; she doesn't believe me.
"Then what're you doing here?"
"I escaped," I said simply. "Ran away," Her stance does soften a little.
"I don't know if I can trust you," She says softly.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm used to it." I shrug her off. "But, if I came here to destroy or harm the village or anyone in the village, I would've done it by now,"
Tsunade breaks her stance and laughs loudly. "Quite cocky, are we?" She responds after she's done laughing. "But," Her face gets serious and she takes a few steps closer to me. "I don't know what to do with you. Why did you come here, of all places, if you ran away?" She questions.
A wind breezes by, blowing my long white hair around me freely. A leaf is falling in the distance, a beautiful sight I'd always heard Konoha was famous for.
"I've always wanted to come here," I replied softly, not taking my eyes off the still dancing leaf.
It was quiet for a little while before she says "Come, Ayaka," and we walk to her office together.
We walk in and she nods over to the comfy looking couch in her office. "There," She says. "You'll sleep there for the night." She walks over and plops down behind her desk and throws her face into her hands with a groan. There's a knock at the door but before Tsunade orders for them to come in, it bursts open to a very frantic looking Shizune and a very irritated looking Sasuke. I smirk.
"Tsunade-sama! Tsunade-sama, Sasuke-kun says he's seen Orochimaru's-" She looks at me, gasps, points frantically, and backs up to Tsunade's desk. "There she is, Tsunade-sama! What's she doing in your office?" Sasuke's head lazily turns to face mine, and I narrow my eyes at him, and then turn the other way to look at Shizune.
Tsunade lets out a sigh. "It's fine, Shizune," She assures her.
"But, but she's…"
"Shizune!" Tsunade snaps, just in time to stop her from saying it. Shizune looks at her, panic-stricken. "I said it was alright, okay? And another thing, that's not to spoken of. Do you hear me? Not to anyone." Shizune nods slowly and steps away from Tsunade's desk.
"Now, Sasuke, everything's alright, so you can go back home now. Thank you," Tsunade smiles nicely to him and he does one of those "tch" things that I guess arrogant emo guys do, glares at me for one second longer, a smirk on his face, and leaves. When both he and Shizune are gone, I look over to Tsunade, who's eyelids are beginning to close sleepily. I wish her a good night and then, fall asleep in the best sleep I can ever remember having.
Well, that was the first chapter, I hope you guys enjoyed it(: Let me know how I'm doing; review, review, review!(: