Quickly and quietly the trio made there way through the forest, jumping through the treetops as fast as there legs could take
Thanks to everyone who reviewed the first chapter. Hi, Inner Neji, Insanity rise, and SaiyanWarrior200. You guys are great!
Chap 2: The Truth Revealed! Escape form Konoha!
In a small, insignificant town somewhere in the Fire Country a small boy walked through the dark streets, his only light to guide him was that coming from the moon. In one arm he carried a meager piece of bread, the only thing he was able to purchase at the shop with the small amount of money he had. His other hand was busy covering the right half of his face.
He continued his trek home for the night, occasionally walking by someone who would turn their head away in disgust. He was used to that.
The sound of laughter filled his ears and he froze. Turning around to follow the source he saw across the street another boy around his age, laughing and holding on to his mothers arm while she carried a bag full of food, dinner for their family. They wouldn't go hungry that night.
His visible eye narrowed at the boy, filled with jealousy. Why couldn't he have that?
He turned away from the scene, picking up speed. At least he still had his precious item. Something no one else had, something that belonged to him alone. He turned the corner into the alleyway, the place where he slept and hid his treasure during the day. He stopped.
Someone one was there.
In the shadows of the alley he could see someone lifting up his fur, his treasure. They ran there grubby fingers through the white fur, surprisingly clean for something found hidden in the garbage. The boy didn't think, he just dropped his bread and attacked.
He caught him off guard, making him drop the fur and cry out in surprise. The man was almost twice as big as the small boy, but that didn't matter. As soon as they hit the ground he started hitting, kicking, biting, anything to lash out on the thief. Eventually the bigger man threw the boy off him and into the wall, getting to his feet and running off deciding it wasn't worth it.
The small boy looked up weakly, seeing his fur lying on the ground. It was still his, and no one else could have it. He crawled over to it, running his hands through it and resting his head on the soft fur.
"That was nice."
He sat up immediately, his right hand unconsciously covering his face. He looked up in shock to see a man staring back down at him, a man who radiated power.
He stood tall, a beige robe covering his body. His skin was unnaturally pale and his eyes…his eyes pierced the boy like they were staring into his soul.
His pale skin reflected in the moonlight as he looked down at him with his snake-like eyes. "You have potential boy. If you follow me, I can make you stronger. I can make it so people won't take anything from you again."
The boy stared into the snake mans eyes, his words striking a cord deep within his young heart, and nodded.
The snake man smiled and turned, his robe flowing as he walked away. Getting to his feet the boy picked up his fur, carrying it on his back as he ran to follow the man.
Dosu's eye flickered open as he regained consciousness, which greeted him with blurred vision and a headache. With a groan he lifted himself up from the cold floor and onto his knees, putting his hand up against his aching head.
"Must have blacked out under the stress…"
Dosu looked around, seeing his vision slowly returning to normal. He started moving around, testing his other senses. Seemed all were accounted for.
His hand felt something sticky on the side of his head, and he brought it back surprised to see blood on his fingers. Apparently his ears had been bleeding.
"Probably shouldn't do that again for awhile."
He got back to his feet and took out his mouthpiece, looking out the window as he did. By the looks of things the sun was beginning to set, so he had been out for quite awhile. Putting his mouthpiece away and taking out his bandages Dosu began to go over what he had learned as he calmly re-wrapped his head.
So Orochimaru planned to use him as a sacrifice.
We would see about that.
He soon finished his task with the bandages; being careful to make sure they wouldn't fall off, and began to go over his options.
The safest course of action would be to flee Konoha immediately. While Dosu was certainly upset with Orochimaru's actions, he wasn't stupid. To go up against the legendary Sannin would be asking for death.
However…
Even if he could not hurt the snakes directly, it would be possible to make life more difficult for him. Even if he escaped, Orochimaru would still have two more sacrifices left, so it would probably make little difference.
Dosu looked out the window. Night would be falling soon so that meant Kabuto would soon be fulfilling his orders, which gave him only a little time to act.
Stretching out his muscles and double checking his supplies, Dosu made his way out of the storage building, having made his decision.
Another needle sliced through the air towards its target, a painting of Konoha that was hanging on the wall, landing right between the eyes of the third. Kin beamed with pride at her improving accuracy, no one would ever get the drop on her again.
Kin walked over and pulled the needle and various others from the (now ruined) painting, ready to take a break. As she started putting away her weapons, she could hear a muttered "finally" coming from Zaku, sitting on his bed just a few feet away.
"I'm sorry, was I bothering you?" She said sweetly to Zaku, the sarcasm in her voice not lost on the boy.
Zaku snorted. "That damn 'thunk' every time your needles hit the wall was getting on my nerves."
Kin let out a sigh; she really didn't feel like arguing with him right now. Turning her back to him she walked over to the window, looking out into the streets of Konoha. The sun was just finishing setting, the bit of light remaining illuminating the village in an orange glow. It didn't look that bad really.
Now that her mind was no longer focused on training however, it wasn't long before her thoughts drifted back to what Dosu had said the other day. He had raised some good points, but she really didn't like thinking about it. Orochimaru-sama had taken her in when no one else would, given her a home, a purpose…
Still, it was hard to deny that he wasn't exactly a…caring person.
"Hey Zaku?"
"Eh?"
"Have you…thought about what Dosu said earlier?" She asked, keeping her eyes out the window.
"Who gives a crap about what the bandage-freak had to say? It was just bullshit."
Kin turned to face him. "Yeah but…"
"I said it was bullshit!" Zaku shouted, standing up and looking pissed. "He's full of crap and you're an idiot if you think otherwise!"
Kin glared back at him. "You know, it's not exactly smart to insult someone with your arms still like that."
"I don't need arms against a weakling like you."
Before Kin could get a retort or a needle in, their fight was once again interrupted by Dosu as he crawled in through the window.
Kin looked over at him unsure as to how to address him. She hadn't seen him since their discussion yesterday, and she had been wondering what he was doing. "Dosu…"
Dosu raised his hand to silence her, before gesturing towards the door. Both Zaku and Kin turned their attention behind, and soon they heard the footsteps walking down the hallway just outside. Soon enough the door opened, revealing a smiling Kabuto carrying a tray with three glasses with some kind of liquid in them
"Ah, good to see you're all here," He said, closing the door behind him. "Zaku, Orochimaru-sama has said it is time to fix those arms of yours."
Zaku's smirked as he got up from the bed, he had been waiting for this. Finally, after a month of waiting, of tolerating the pain, of walking past Orochimaru in the hallway only to hear "Kabuto will get to them soon," it was going to happen. As soon as he had his arms back he knew a few people he was going to enjoy meeting up with again.
Dosu looked to the tray in Kabutos hands. "What are the drinks for?"
Kabuto looked back at him. "It's something I came up with. It will help Zaku relax during the process, and is designed to improve ones health."
"There are three glasses." Dosu noted.
Kabuto nodded. "Yes. I thought you two might not mind having some yourself. It will help you sleep better tonight as well as being good for you."
"Ah." Dosu replied. "I understand."
Dosu shocked everyone a second later by flying across the room, aiming his fist for Kabuto's face. Caught off guard, the medic-nin was just able to dodge the physical blow, but couldn't avoid the sound waves that followed.
The glasses shattered in midair spilling the contents to the floor, followed by Kabuto as he fell to his knees vomiting. Kin and Zaku just looked on in shock.
"Dosu!" Zaku shouted. "What the fuck are you doing?!"
"I heard Orochimaru and Kabuto talking this mourning." Dosu replied calmly, not taking his eyes off the medic-nin. "He is not here to fix your arms Zaku."
Zaku's breath caught in his throat. "What…what are you talking about?"
"What I mean is he was sent here to get us all ready to be sacrifices for Orochimaru's plan."
Kin's mouth opened in a gasp and Zaku just glared at Dosu, his teeth clenched in anger.
"That's impossible!" Zaku shouted. "Orochimaru-sama would never…!"
"So you heard huh?"
All eyes were on him as Kabuto slowly rose back up, pushing his glasses back into place as a few broken shards of glass fell from the frame.
"So…what Dosu said is…" Kin managed to get out.
Kabuto smirked. "True? Yeah, you guys aren't really worth much else to him at this point."
Dosu took a step backwards, growing somewhat concerned with the situation. "He was able to recover from my attack this quickly? Who is this guy?"
"NO!" Zaku ran forward past Dosu, jumping into the air in an attempt to kick Kabuto's head off his shoulders. "You're lying!"
Kabuto easily dodged the attack and Zaku landed in front of him, and quickly sent Zaku flying back into the wall with a well-aimed punch in the chest. Kin and Dosu watched as he body hit the wall and fell to the floor, not getting back up.
Dosu turned his head back to Kabuto. This was not good. This man was stronger than he had been led to believe.
"This would go much easier for everyone if you guys just accepted this." Kabuto said, drawing a kunai from his pouch. "You guys should be happy. This is what you wanted right? To serve Orochimaru with all you had?"
Dosu glanced back at his teammates. Kin looked nervous but was still drawing out a few needles. Zaku was apparently still conscious, but looked as though he was about to have a nervous breakdown. As it stood they might have a chance against this guy, but Dosu had been looking for a quick escape, not a drawn out confrontation.
Dosu sighed; he should have just taken off by himself when he had the chance.
His own face unreadable as always, Dosu looked back at Kabuto. "Zaku, Kin."
Both ninja looked up at him.
"The window. Now."
Dosu jumped forward once again, his arm ready to unleash another attack. Only this time instead of aiming directly for Kabuto, he aimed below him. Kin, recognizing his intentions, grabbed Zaku by the sleeve and dragged him quickly to his feet pulling him towards the open window.
Dosu's fist struck the floor and released a wave of sound into the wooden floorboards, and with a violent lurch the wood splintered into a million pieces underneath Kabuto. The splintered wood fell to the floor below with a loud crash taking the medic-nin with it.
Dosu jumped back in time before the floor beneath him collapsed and followed Zaku and Kin out the window onto the streets below, landing safely next to them. Zaku was staring at the ground, a distant look in his face. However, it was Kin's worried look into the air that caught Dosu's attention.
Just a few seconds behind them they saw Kabuto jumping out the window, landing a few feet away from them and looking no worse for wear and still smiling that shit-eating grin of his.
"Your more resourceful than I thought, I'll give you that." Kabuto said, brushing a little dirt off his shoulder. "But I think we all know how this is going to end."
Kin replied by sending a few needles in his direction, which Kabuto skillfully dodged, he even managed to catch one and began twirling it around between his fingers tauntingly. Not one to take such an insult lying down she readied another batch of needles, only to be stopped when Dosu raised his arm in front of her, drawing back his sleeve once more.
"That will not be necessary Kin." Dosu said to her.
Kabuto didn't look impressed. "Don't expect that little sound trick of yours to work again. I'm ready for it this time."
Dosu said nothing and stood perfectly still, his arm raised in the air. Slowly he began spinning his arm around, issuing a small siren-like noise from his speaker. His arm began to spin faster and the faster he spun the louder the noise got.
Kabuto watched the display warily, not wanting to risk getting too close. He kept his footing and kept his eyes on the surrounding; trying to make out any visible changes from whatever trick Dosu was trying to pull.
The noise was apparently at its peak now, the air going through the speaker and coming out as a loud screeching noise. Kin and Zaku, being so close to the source, covered their ear or at least, Zaku tried too.
Everything quieted as Dosu's arm slowed down, coming to a complete stop and falling to his side again, the sleeve once again covering it. However, after all that no one could see and visible sign of what Dosu had been trying to do.
"Was that it?" Kabuto asked, clearing out his ear with his finger. "Was that supposed to do something?"
"Not really." Dosu answered. "It was just a loud noise. One of the first things I learned while training to control the sound waves from my arm. Besides being loud and annoying it really had no other purpose."
Kabuto looked confused. "I don't understand."
"However," Dosu continued, "Such a loud noise would probably attract the attention of Konoha, and I would imagine it wouldn't be very long before some of its ninja's come to investigate." Dosu watched at Kabuto's eyes widened. "Wouldn't they be surprised to find you hear fighting with a bunch of sound genin? In fact…"Dosu brought his hand up to his ear for emphasis. "I think I hear them now."
The smile on Kabuto's face finnaly fell. "Orochimaru isn't going to like this."
"You tell him we're through with him," Dosu calmly replied. "We're leaving. Anything between him and Konoha is no longer our concern.
Kabuto glared at Dosu, his displeasure at being bested by such a low-level ninja evident on his face. With a quick glance over his shoulder for Leaf-nin he took off, deciding it was just not worth it to continue this anymore.
Dosu looked back at his teammates, who were watching him with a mix of awe and surprise. "I think it's time we left."
Quickly and quietly the trio made there way through the forest, jumping through the treetops as fast as there legs could take them. They really had little idea of were they were going, only that it was away from Konoha and Orochimaru. Dosu lead the way with Kin following close by. Zaku was lagging behind, his injured arms making it difficult for him to properly balance himself for each leap from tree to tree.
They continued like this for hours, occasionally changing directions to throw off anyone who may try to follow them. It was a little after midnight when they were forced to stop to rest and let Zaku catch up.
Kin leaned back against a tree while Dosu remained in the treetops, inspecting the surrounding area making sure they didn't have any unwanted company. Zaku soon joined them and immediately dropped to the ground to rest, the pain in his arms from all this movement finally getting to him.
Dosu landed in front of them, his silence telling them the coast was clear and it was safe to rest.
The trio sat there in silence, none of them with any idea of what could be said given the situation. Kin and Zaku were still wrapping there brains around what happened, just now having the time to actually think about it. The only one who had really accepted the situation was Dosu, but even he had a little trouble with it.
"It fucking cold out here."
Leave it to Zaku to so eloquently break the silence.
Dosu got to his feet again and walked out into the darkness, returning some time later with an armful of sticks and dumped them in the middle of the group. Kin pulled out a set of matches while Dosu got the kindling set up right, and Zaku kicked the occasional loose stick back into place. Within a few minutes they had a fire going, large enough to keep them warm in the cold night air.
The light from the fire reflected off their faces, revealing the lost expressions of Kin and Zaku, while Dosu's face remained hidden by bandages. Dozens of thoughts were running through their heads at that moment. It wasn't until Zaku noticed the light reflecting off Kin's Sound forehead protector that he finally snapped.
"Fuck."
Dosu sighed, he knew this was coming.
"Fuck, what the hell happened?!" Zaku eyes travailed between Kin and Dosu, as if he expected one of them to have the answer.
"Zaku calm down."
"No you shut up Dosu! We trained under him for years how the fuck could he just….how could he just…?"
"Betray us?"
Kin and Zaku both shot angry glares towards the ground. They knew it was true; they just didn't want it to be.
"Whether you wish to admit or not, Orochimaru has forsaken us. Not that surprising really after what he has taught us. Could we really have expected anything less after failing?"
Dosu reached behind his head and untied his forehead protector, holding it out in front of him. "As of now, we are no longer part of his village." Releasing his hold on it the symbol of their old village fell into the fire, the cloth instantly going up in flames. Dosu watched as the flame engulfed that which had been a part of for so long, and hoped neither of them had noticed his hesitation before dropping it.
Kin watched as it burned, the fire reflecting the anger in her own eyes. With a snarl she reached back and undid her own forehead protector and threw it into the flame. The metals clinked against each other as it landed.
All eye turned to Zaku, who just kept his gaze on the fire. Out of all of them, Zaku was the one feeling the most betrayed .Orochimaru had been the first person to ever treat him like he was worth anything, and now he was learning it was all a lie. "Maybe Kabuto acting on his own! I mean, if we went back…"
Dosu wasn't about to let him finish. "Zaku, understand this: if you return to Konoha you will be killed. Orochimaru does not care for us, I doubt he ever did. You need to accept that."
Zaku looked back down into the flames, watching the sound symbols of his teammates burning away.
"Also…" Dosu said, staring Zaku straight in the eye. "Even if you wanted to, you could not go back to him. I would kill you before I'd allow that to happen."
Zaku let out a weak laugh. That should be expected form his "teammates". Couldn't let him go back and reveal where they were heading now could they. Loyalty only ran so far between Sound shinobi.
Dosu wasn't going to wait forever. "Well?"
Zaku didn't meet his eyes. "I…can't."
Kin got to her feet, glaring at Zaku in disbelief over his stupidity "You pathetic little worm! How can you still remain loyal to that snake after what he did to us! You were there or did you have your head stuck up your ass the whole time?!" She came close to reaching over and strangling him, the only thing stopping her was the fear that if she got to close he might notice the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes.
Zaku looked up at her. "No…I mean I can't."
Kin looked back at him confused before realization dawned on her. "Oh for the love of…"
Reaching down herself Kin yanked Zaku's forehead protector and threw it into the fire sending sparks flying into the air. The fire cracked and sparked as their ties to the Hidden Village of Sound burned away.
They all watched silently for the next few minutes, the metal in the flames reflecting against them as if trying to call them back.
Zaku was the first to say anything. "You guys realize those things are made of metal right? They're not going to burn."
"It's supposed to be symbolic jackass." Kin growled.
"Enough." Dosu interjected, getting to his feet again. "We should get some sleep; I'll take first watch for tonight. We'll talk about what we will do next in the mourning."
Kin and Zaku nodded and Dosu took off for the treetops again. Kin lay back against the tree and closed her eyes, while Zaku remained sitting up and staring at the fire. It would be some time before anyone got any sleep that night.
I hoped you all enjoyed this chapter. Please leave a review to tell me what you thought about it. Just press the little button down there…
