Aemi's legs wobbled as she walked, and she silently cursed Orochimaru when she fell. It was his fault she hadn't walked in eight years. The way she thought of it, if he hadn't been so damn afraid of her, he wouldn't have locked her up, and she wouldn't be as unsteady as she was now.
She leaned against the door frame to one of the rooms and gazed at it silently. Ten years ago, this cushy room, with a large bed, a chest of drawers, a desk, and a bedside table, had been her prison. She hadn't realized it. Probably no five year old would have. But she knew it now.
The furniture was gone, leaving a large, dark, empty room.
Matches how I feel, thought Aemi dryly.
She knew how empty and expressionless her eyes looked. She could tell by the way Orochimaru had looked at her that this was part of how scary she was. Like she could kill you and her eyes would never once change. As it was, she felt like a normal girl in her seemingly hopeless situation would start crying. She should probably be crying in frustration right now, or stomping her foot, or reacting in some way. But she didn't. She was unnaturally calm. That was the way it had always been.
There was an exit here somewhere.
She'd already found clothes to replace the shapeless, tattered dress she'd worn on the day of her imprisonment—which, since she had obviously grown in eight years, was extremely small on her. The short-sleeve dark blue kimono she'd found was a bit snug around the chest, and also shorter than she'd liked, as it just barely brushed her knee-caps. She'd stolen pants to fix that problem, and rolled the cuffs up so it wouldn't look extremely stupid.
She heard footsteps coming down this hallway and almost panicked. She hid herself in the shadows quickly and waited until the person passed.
Yakushi, she thought, frowning. Yakushi, you asshole.
She knew she was free to do whatever she wanted, even to leave, and she knew that she could easily take on Kabuto Yakushi. But she'd lived too long being on the run, she'd gotten cautious. She couldn't stop herself from checking over her shoulder and making sure she wasn't making a sound.
Finally she came to an exit. As she stepped out of Orochimaru's hideout and into the world, the sun and warmth burned her eyes, seared her skin. She lifted her arms away from her sides and let it. Then she opened her stride and began to run. Her legs stretched, using muscles that hadn't been accessed in years and years. Wind, lovely wind, rushed into her face. She could feel her hair floating back, long and flowing.
She slowly trailed off into a walk. Where had she to run to anyway? She couldn't possibly go home…Could she? They probably didn't even remember her. They probably didn't care. Her mother was dead, she had no idea who her father was. She stared into the sun and nodded decisively. Home it is.
Home. Watch out, guys—Leaf village's biggest bitch is on her way home.
--
Naruto's Point of View
Kakashi-sensei was still in the hospital. Sakura, Sai, Captain Yamato and I had all been assigned another mission. Sakura was still in a bit of a slump after our last fight with Sasuke, when she had seen him and not been able to do anything, even after Sai and Captain Yamato were injured. She was convinced she was weak. I knew better, but nothing I said made a difference. So I did my best to distract her.
"Wait, Captain Yamato, what's this mission again?" I asked, forgetting again.
"We're investigating whether or not Orochimaru is dead," Captain Yamato calmly explained.
I nodded, remembering. My memory was horrible if I forgot something as important as that. "Okay."
Sakura and Sai didn't say anything. Sai eventually glanced at me, though, and said, "Someone's coming."
Immediately after, a girl about our age came flying through the trees, headed the other way. She froze stock-still when she saw us, stopping at the branch ahead of us. Her eyes, empty black pupils with an unusually colored black-and-white iris, drifted up, to rest on our headbands.
"You're Leaf ninja?" she asked.
I nodded. "Yeah. What's wrong? You looked like you were in a hurry."
Captain Yamato and Sai had drawn their weapons. The girl saw them.
"No need for those," she said. "I'm not going to fight you. I'm just going to leave."
"There she is!"
The girl groaned. Four tough-looking men appeared in front of her, their backs to us.
"Hey, you, girl!" growled one. "Give us that pendant back."
She scowled at them. "You losers don't know how to use it. It's much better off with me."
"That has belonged to us for generations," said another.
"You should thank me, then, for taking it off your hands so you don't have to play babysitter. It's never going to help you if you stick it on a wall."
"It is sacred to us!"
"You dense monkeys!" she retorted calmly. "You don't even know what to do with it!"
"That's it, I've had enough of your voice!" A tall, beefy one reached for the girl's throat.
I immediately pressed a kunai against his throat. "When a lady is speaking, it's best to listen."
I saw Sakura smile out of the corner of my eye. She knew those words had originally been spoken by Elder Chiyo from the Sand Village. Then the smile slowly vanished. I hadn't seen the fist that swung my way. I braced myself for impact, knowing I couldn't jump away in time. The impact never came.
I opened my eyes. The girl was scowling at the man, but her eyes held no expression. She had grabbed the man's arm just before his punch connected. His arm was twitching in effort to break away from her, but she looked like she could hold him there for hours.
"Thanks for the assistance," she said, and I realized she was talking to me, "but I don't want you getting hurt on my account."
She swung the man's fist away and her leg flew up, burying itself in his stomach. He flew back into a tree and lay still.
"K-Kazuo?" said the first man. He looked at the girl with fear in his eyes. "T-Take the pendant. J-Just don't…"
"Don't what? Do this?"
She cocked her fist and in a flash, it had smashed the man right in between his eyes. He too slumped unconscious. She cracked her knuckles and turned her attention to the other two men.
"Anyone else?" she asked.
They shook their heads, bending to pick up their wounded. When they went to lift the beefy one, Kazuo, the girl looked at them.
"Don't bother," she said emotionlessly. "He's dead."
One checked for a pulse, and his eyes widened as her sentence was confirmed.
"How did you…" I was about to ask, when I saw the stab wound in Kazuo's stomach.
I wasn't sure when she'd been able to stab him, but the point was, he was dead. I looked at the girl again, this time spying the pendant that all this fuss had been about. It hung perfectly around her pale neck, on a plain brown cord. The pendant itself was a solid black stone, large and smooth-looking.
I was tempted to ask about it, but the girl really didn't look like she was in the mood to talk. She was about to leave, it seemed, when someone was suddenly pinning her against a tree.
"Sai!" I yelled.
The almost-emotionless black-haired boy didn't look at me. His attention was fully on the girl.
"Who are you?" he said. "And why is your face at the top of the Leaf Anbu Bingo Book?"
The girl stared back at him, the something strange happened. Her face cracked into a smile.
Aemi's Point of View
The boy was very close to me. It took me a bit to realize he had me pinned. Eyes just as expressionless as mine bored into my mind.
"Sai!" I heard the yellow-haired boy scream.
Sai, hm? Interesting.
"Who are you?" Sai asked. "And why is your face at the top of the Leaf Anbu Bingo Book?"
I couldn't help it. I smiled.
"You may not know me," I said. "But I know you, Sai."
The boy's expression didn't change. It was like looking at a male version of myself. His eyes were almost as empty, but…there was something in his eyes I didn't have. A little spark of something. Gradually, my brain made the connection. This boy had people that he was starting to care for. He wasn't like me at all. I only had myself.
And that was how it was going to stay.
"And if you're Sai," I continued, "then that blonde boy must be Naruto Uzumaki. The girl is obviously Sakura Haruno, and the remaining man is Yamato. Am I correct?"
"Who are you?" Sai repeated.
For some reason, I felt like laughing. This guy was amusing me.
"Aemi," I said, knowing very well that wasn't my real name. I didn't know what my real name was, but it sure as hell wasn't that. "I don't remember my last name."
"What are you doing here?"
I held his gaze evenly. "If you really must know, I was running from Orochimaru's hideout."
I could see the blonde boy, Naruto, stiffen.
"Orochimaru?" he asked.
"Well," I said, "I call him snake-ass, but I doubt you four would have understood who the hell I was talking about. Now, would you mind letting me go, or are you going to continue to be a heartless prying bastard?"
Sai pressed me harder against the tree. "Why were you at Orochimaru's?"
"I was his prisoner for eight years. He bought me off of my mother when I was five. He chose to lock me up when I was barely seven."
"Where are your parents now?" asked Sakura.
"Mother's dead. I don't know where my father is."
"Why are you in the Bingo Book as 'Enemy Unknown'?" demanded Sai, drawing my attention back to him.
"Why don't you ask the son of a bitch you call a leader?"
Suddenly, my head snapped to the side. The skin of my cheek burned. He had slapped me, the jackass.
"Sai!" scolded Sakura.
"Sai, you bastard, what was that for?" Naruto started toward him, but Yamato put a hand on his shoulder.
"Sai, I admit she is in the Bingo Book as an extremely dangerous ninja," he said. "But I'm not sure she knows that. We need her with us. She can help. Then we can take her back to the village. But she didn't need the slap."
"She's lying to us."
Yamato blinked.
"She's lying," said Sai. "Her name's not Aemi."
"Well I don't know about you," I said calmly. "But that's what I've been called for the past ten years."
"That's not your real name."
"Then what is it? C'mon. Enlighten me."
We stood there, staring at each other, waiting for one of us to look away first. He seemed about to say something when Sakura laid a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Sai," she said softly. "Just let her go."
He looked at Sakura in surprise.
"Look," I said, sighing. "I promise I won't run away. I'll go with you."
He glanced at me, sizing me up, then released me. "Fine."
I took a deep, gasping breath, realizing the loser had been slowly cutting off my air flow.
Lovely, I thought. That probably killed half my brain cells.
