Right. Hi?
So, I've decided to return after... what? Six years? All info in that regard is in my bio, so feel free to check that out. If you haven't read my first story, Boiling Point, before, good. Don't. It's not worth it and HOPEFULLY, this story will turn out better. For those who have read Boiling Point, hello again, I missed you guys, and hopefully I do an old idea justice. Obviously, since I am hopelessly behind in the manga, this is going to be categorized as AU. Inconsistencies in the canon are inevitable, and acceptable. To me, anyway.
Enough rambling, and on with the story. Tahtah, and much love.
The room was damp and dusty, and the walls crumbled like limestone. It felt more like a natural cave than anything synthetic, and this suited Kabuto's purposes just fine. His blood ran cold and his scales locked in place to preserve heat, but fires fixed that particular problem. He loved the dark, and he loved its implications.
Moss began to grow in the corners, lurking like an unwelcome visitor, but he couldn't be bothered with housekeeping unless it bothered the massive tube, human-sized, in the middle of the room. It didn't, so he was blind to it. Tables with vials and an assortment of grisly trophies surrounded the tube, like worshipers. He approached one that started it all, an experiment Orochimaru-sama didn't even know about.
Several pink hairs, now three years old, lay in sealed slides next to vials that held fingernails. These were the most innocent of his samplings, but no less important. He remembered when he found Haruno Sakura's hair lying in a heap on the forest floor. It was the only thing Kin did usefully, directly towards him, anyway. Most of the hair was sliced, which made it worthless for DNA testing, but Kin had managed to pull some strands out. Those pulled hairs had started all of this, and now, it would finish it.
With a few seals, the water in the tube began to bubble. Cloning was a deliberate, slow process with just one person's DNA. It required nothing short of genius, precision, and a great deal of luck to make an individual with several. He lost count at thirteen.
Hours passed on in this fashion, chakra channeling tightly through his feet into the seals surrounding the tube. Particles and strands and loops tangled themselves to form atoms, and then cells, and then tissue. It required perfect concentration and perfect ability. Kabuto could claim both of those, and he didn't allow himself to smile.
"Look at me now," he gave himself room to think, but then he continued to concentrate. Chakra pooled in precise channels like alchemy.
Sakura-chan's hair. Mitsori-san's fingernails. Kiri-chan's eyes. The list of body parts went on, worsening as it did, because Kabuto's theory was iron tight. The more he had, the less he had to invent, and the chakras each possessed were invaluable. Tissue wove itself into muscle and bone, skin and organs, like a brilliant tapestry of blood and gore.
It sealed itself, hiding the unpleasant framework of the human body, and a young girl of about fourteen floated before him. Six hours, thirty seven minutes, six seconds. A miracle. Kabuto didn't only smile, but he let out a bark of laughter. Brilliant. He wasn't a ninja. No. He was a magician, a medical prodigy, someone everyone should fear.
He wouldn't let his overconfidence completely take control until he inspected her, and with that shock of pink hair and the bright blue eyes he knew she possessed, as well as the body he so ornately, specifically created... that was something he could take his time with, and enjoy. He pressed a button and let the water drain, oblivious to the fact his stomach was rumbling and his throat felt like he swallowed a bucket of sand. It could wait. It could all wait.
The girl fell to the button of the tube, slumping against its walls. Her knees were up to her chest, but not enough to cover her breasts. Her hair stuck to her face, a face with high, sharp cheekbones and full lips. Kabuto waited patiently for the sounds he waited for.
They came. He heard beeping, in time with her heartbeat; they started out slow and continued to speed up. He then saw twitches of skin, muscle twinges as they learned in seconds what they were meant for when natural-born people took hours, days, years. Eyelashes fluttered.
Finally the moment he was waiting for: that delightful chest heaved, and her mouth opened to suck in breath that the water left behind. Her hands thumped on the walls, and finally, Kabuto started laughing. Not the maniacal, evil villain way, but out of sheer delight. Which, to be fair, he mused to himself, was close enough.
This wonderful creature's eyes opened, and met his.
It could begin.