Disclaimer: I'm only saying this once, it's it's called fan fiction for a reason. I don't get paid for this.
Warnings: There is canon typical violence, child abuse, and the vivisection of a child, the attempted murder of a child, slight body dysphoria, childhood depression, and probably a few other things I'm forgetting, this warning will change per chapter,
Updating Schedule: I tend to post them as I write them, or well, edit, let set for a day or two, then edit again, and then post. Bear with me, I have the attention span of concussed goldfish.
Beta: Needed? Only ever had one once and they actually changed things that weren't incorrect to incorrect. So if you offer I will test you. Sorry, not sorry.
Note: Uh, when I first came up with the idea for this story it was a lot less terrifying, but then I had a whole litter of plot kittens climb me like a scratching post and thus this chapter came about. I hope you continue reading, um enjoy? OH! and wistericc on tumblr gave me permission to use their response to a prompt posted by alleycat4eva as the title for this fic.
CHAPTER ONE
Sarutobi Hiruzen has seen many horrors in the wars he has fought, but the most horrible thing he ever laid eyes on was the sight before him. His student stood over an examination table with a dark haired child cut open on it. The machines attached to the child told him that he or she was still alive.
"Sarutobi-sensei," Orochimaru said and much to Hiruzen's horror the child opened their eyes and turned their head to look at him, "it seems you've finally found my laboratory."
"Orochimaru, what have you done?" Hiruzen asked, as he hoped that he was seeing things, that the child's eyes weren't the shade of yellow he suspected matched the man's before him.
"I've merely indulged my own curiosity." Orochimaru answered with a sadistic grin, and when Hiruzen took a step forward Orochimaru put a blade to the child's neck, "ah, ah, ahh, I wouldn't be too hasty, sensei."
He can feel more than see the ANBU behind him tense. What he does see is the child's eyes widening and the rise and fall of their chest speed up along with the beeping of the heart monitor. A bead of blood slips down their throat and drips onto the table they're lying on.
"Please," The voice is a high girlish tone, but horse as though she spent a lot of time screaming and she wets her lips, "please, just kill him."
Orochimaru frowns and with a twitch of his fingers slices through the girl's throat. The battle begins as though the ending of her life had been the signal to start the fight.
Only the girl doesn't die. Tsunade had wanted medics on every team, but that wasn't possible. The only exception had been within the Shadow ranks. ANBU were required to have double specialties and those who could pick up the medic specialty did.
The girl is put into a medically induced coma so she can heal, but when she does wake up Hiruzen makes sure he is there. She is sitting on her bed by the open hospital window. Guilt and regret settles in his chest upon looking in her eyes, they are the same shape and color as Orochimaru's, but her pupil isn't slit.
"Is he dead?" She asks him before he has a chance to introduce himself.
"Unfortunately, Orochimaru managed to escape." He answers honestly.
"Ah," She looks disappointed, but not surprised as she nods.
"My name is Sarutobi Hiruzen, the third Hokage," He tells her, "what's your name?"
Her name was one thing that the files found in Orochimaru's lab didn't have.
"Zero-five-zero," She answered, picking at her cover in order to avoid looking at Hiruzen.
"You know that's not a real name, right?" He asked her.
"It's what I've been called all my life," She said and then looked up at him, "if you want you can name me, I guess."
Hiruzen was of the opinion that all children should be protected, that without them there would be no future. That Orochimaru had been willing to toss his own child aside to save his own life angered him. This child was a precious treasure that should have been protected at all costs.
"How does the name Takara sound to you?" He asked her.
"Takara, huh," She smiled, it was a small thing, but it was more than Hiruzen expected from a girl who had gone through the things she had, "I like it."
The first time that Takara sees her reflection she freezes in place. There were no mirrors in Orochimaru's lab or in her cell. She had only known that she had fair skin, fairer than it had been in her last life (most likely due to the lack of sunlight in the lab), and brown hair dark enough to be considered black in low light. Now that she's finally looking at herself she can feel the beginnings of a panic attack set in.
Her eyes are framed by long dark lashes that she would have loved to have had in her last life. It's the color and the shape that has her heart beating faster. Yellow like dandelions, yellow like her favorite color used to be before staring into the eyes of her tormentor and finding that color there.
She takes in the rest of her features and notes that she has high cheek bones that are the same as his and that her hair is the same texture that his is and - 'Calm yourself down, you don't want to pass out,' - Her hands are shaking, her breath is coming in little gasps, and she distantly notes she has tunnel vision.
Orochimaru is her... genetic donor. She may not have been on good terms with her father in her past life, but she damn well knows what he did was not the actions of a parent, (She ignores the little part of her that points out his actions when she was very small ('Oh fuck no, I do not have a case of Stockholm Syndrome!') because they do not excuse the fact he straight up tried to kill her.) and she will never consider him that. Besides, she had an amazing mother in her last life and even if her dad wasn't all that great he never vivisected her or slit her throat.
That makes her raise a still slightly shaky hand to her throat where a thin pink line lay across her neck. She turned and closed the door behind her so she could undress for her shower and look at the other scar. It too, is just pale pink lines, but it's much thicker. It stretches the entire length of her torso, but is shaped like a 'capital I' where her skin had been peeled back so Orochimaru could look at her organs.
"Ugh," She groans and runs her hands down her face, "thinking about that is not helping, Takara."
She's not sure if they'll have someone sit with her at all times if she passes out. What she does know is that she really doesn't like the idea of someone watching while she showers. So she decides to think about bathing and tries not to get distracted as she heads for the shower stall in the tiny bathroom connected to her hospital room.
Morino Ibiki looks like he's one small growth spurt and disfiguration from being what she vaguely remembers him to look like in the anime and manga she once enjoyed. She guessed he's probably around seventeen or eighteen, but she's not totally sure. All she does know is that he shows up with some kind of takeout box shortly after she gets out of the bathroom.
"Hi," he gave a little nod and a small smile, "my name is Morino Ibiki."
"The Hokage named me Takara..." She said as she shifted awkwardly on her feet as she stood in the doorway, "... um, you're not a medic, so, uh, why are you here?"
"Ah, I need to talk to you about your time with Orochimaru." He answered kindly.
"Oh," She blinked and then grimaced, "Um, you can come in, I guess."
She climbed into her bed and pulled her pillow to her chest while he took the chair. This was not a topic she wanted to go over, but she knew it was enviable.
'Best to just get this over with,'
"What do you feel comfortable talking about right now?" She actually laughed at that.
"Not Orochimaru, that's for sure." Her smile faded and she sighed as she looked at anything, but Ibiki, "Just ask what you want to know."
"Was Orochimaru the only person you had contact with?" He asked her.
"No, there were other kids around my age, or a little older." She answered, "There was some kind of sickness that swept through them and a little over twenty died before Orochimaru got it under control. Sometimes he would take them and they would never be seen again, other times they would be brought back, but die because of whatever he did to them."
"You say them, and not us." He pointed out and she looked him in the eye.
"They never liked me, I didn't understand why..." She shivered and clutched her pillow tighter, "... I look like him, he was never kind to any of us, but I was favored by him, I didn't know why..."
"You're his daughter." He said and she looked at him angrily.
"No, I. Am. Not." She bit out angrily, "I was nothing more than an experiment to him."
Ibiki remained calm despite her fit of temper, only raising his eye brows, "Ah, I'm sorry I upset you."
"There were books," She said leaning back against the wall her bed was push against, "he taught us to read, and the parents in the books never did the things he did to us to their kids."
"So, what do you think of him in regards of your being related to him?" He asked and she sighed as she thunked her head against the wall behind her.
"I literally just found out before my shower and..." She made a frustrated sound, "I don't know," She blinked tears out of her eyes, "I want to cry and I don't understand why he did the things he did and..."
"It's okay if you want to cry," He told her as she let out a shaky breath.
"What's going to happen to me now?" She asked as she started to cry, "What do I do?"
She ended up crying until she fell asleep and when she woke up the box Ibiki had had with him was sitting on the night stand next to her bed with a note that said, 'Didn't get the chance to give this to you before you fell asleep,' in neat hand writing. Takara found that she really liked dango.
Note: Let me know what you thought?