Prelude

And so it was that they left the village of sand.

As they left Vincent turned to look at his new companions. He still did not know them well, but the person he saw at the window told him he had made someone very nervous of his abilities.

Chapter III

They had been walking for well over two days. Not that Vincent seemed to mind.

Walking was as easy to him as shooting a gun, but something told him to be weary of the surrounding forest area.

He noticed that his companions seemed to be getting a bit edgy as the day moved on and they got closer to this village of the leaf.

Vincent knew they where being followed by some people wearing white masks. The unknown 'intruders' seemed to be very careful in their bid to not be seen as they watched the group from Suna walk towards this supposed village of the leaf.

It was only after another half hour of walking did the masked people send someone up to them.

Vincent decided to keep a low profile; preferring to let his companions sort this out.

"What do you lot from Suna want in Konoha?" the masked person asked directly.

"Straight to the point ain't they?" Kankuro asked of his sister loudly.

"Shut up Kankuro," Gaara said simply making his brother suddenly clamp up making Vincent wonder as to what Gaara had over his elder brother.

"I would prefer to tell your Hokage about it," Temari said as she stepped forward. "This is a matter of certain importance to your Hokage."

"Keep going," the masked stranger told them. "We will be around."

And with that the masked person left to rejoin his group.

As his little group continued, Vincent turned his head to watch one of the masked people who where still watching over them.

His eyes could see well into the darkness that was hiding the unknown masked group.

It was one of his cursed blessings from Hojo that he could see this well in the darkness.

"Hey pal," Kankuro called out to Vincent. "If you keep on staring like that you are going to trip and fall down."

Vincent ignored him and continued to stare at the man who seemed just as curious as to his behaviour.

The man quickly moved away from his spot to another area on the other side of their walking party of four.

Vincent turned his head to regard the masked follower with his red eyes, a smile hidden within the folds of his cloak.

"I don't know what he's looking at; but I bet you any moment now he is going to trip himself up soon," Kankuro bet his sister.

"There is nothing out there Vincent," Temari told him as she continued to walk, blatantly ignoring her painted brother's jibes at the red cloaked individual.

"Then why is that man following us?" he asked ever so innocently making the three teens stare at him.

"You can see someone?" Kankuro asked in disbelief.

"Yes," replied Vincent. "He is also wearing the same white mask as the others."

"Don't worry then," Temari told him. "It is proberly just one of their ANBU's."

"As you wish," nodded Vincent as he continued to walk as if walking in a familiar park.

Gaara however was following him closely as if sensing a kindred spirit. This seemed to amaze his siblings as they walked behind the two while they neared their destination.

Even Vincent noticed that the silent redhead seemed to be taking a liking to him. But there was still nothing he could do to quiet the boy's seemingly endless gaze of wonder towards him.

Yet still he let it continue. The child would learn one day to open up. Just like a certain blond friend of his who loved to carry around his huge oversized sword.

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"What are you talking about, Kabuto?" the snake-like Sanin asked curiously.

"Master I have discovered that there is a man walking around with skin paler than death itself, with an arm that is supposed to be almost indestructible and claims to be neither human nor demon," Kabuto reported.

"The same could be said of all Ninja's fool," Orochimaru hissed.

"I know that master," Kabuto pleaded. "He also claimed to be unable to die."

"And why would that be?" queried his master.

"The man claims to have been killed more times than anyone around and is now nothing more than a walking corpse," informed the medic-nin.

"Interesting," Orochimaru hissed happily. "I think we may need to pay a visit to our so called dead person just to make sure."

"Yes master," bowed Kabuto as he left his master to his thinking.

"Let us see if this so called 'corpse' can aide me in everlasting life," laughed Orochimaru in a snake-like fashion.

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Meanwhile in the Bat Tower! (1)

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Tsunade seemed to be a bit put off today and the reason for it was evident in the scene that was 'playing' in front of her.

Jiraiya and Naruto had been dragged into the office for causing a scene near the women's baths.

They where both having a fight about the frog hermit having no morals in her office, when the Jounin outside her door told her that the guest's from Suna had arrived.

She waved to the Jounin to let them in as she got up from her chair.

"NARUTO… JIRAIYA… SHUT THE HELL UP!" she screamed at the two as the guest's from Suna walked into her office.

There where four in total.

Three she knew already to be the sand siblings which she had met before.

The other one she had never seen before and was hiding his entire left arm in his cloak.

The one called Kankuro opened his mouth to speak, but was stopped when Tsunade held her hand up and started to walk towards that stranger who had taken her interest.

He was beautiful. She had never seen such a beautiful specimen of man before.

His white pallor actually enhanced his outward beauty. It was a stunning sight. Because she also noticed that she could not see his chest rise or move of any sort.

So it was that she quickly brought her chakra up as she quickly moved around towards that unknown man. Her curiosity beyond what she had ever known.

And Jiraiya had noticed her apparent curiosity as well, as he moved over to observe.

The sand siblings and Naruto went quiet as the two Sanin's moved quickly to the dark haired stranger.

"Would you mind if I ask you why you are not breathing?" Jiraiya asked assisting his old team-mate in the questioning.

"I don't need to breathe as much as you do," was the emotionless reply which seemed to startle the sand-nins and Naruto.

"Would you mind if I check something?" Tsunade asked him politely.

"Go ahead," he told her in a flat voice.

Tsunade moved her hand above the man's chest and scanned his internal organs using her chakra and her famed skills as a medical-nin to give him a quick going over.

A few moments had passed and Tsunade knew that Naruto was starting to get bored and noisy; because the said brat was just starting to get on her nerves again.

So as such she finished what she was doing quickly and backed away from the man.

"What's your name?" she asked bluntly.

"Vincent," he told her quietly.

"How come your heart beats only five times a minute, Vincent?" she asked him bringing startled cries amongst the assembled crowd with the exception of Naruto.

"What do you mean Tsunade-baba?" Naruto asked curiously.

"It means that unlike our hearts which will beat say… every three seconds. While our friend here has a heart that rarely beats," she told the Genin.

"Is that even possible Tsunade?" Jiraiya asked the Hokage.

"That's just it," she told him. "It should not even be possible."

"That's just creepy," Kankuro muttered under his breath earning a glare from his younger brother that made him fall silent.

"You also have some foreign substances fused into your entire cell structure," she told him. "How did you get like this?"

"Hojo," was the answer from Vincent. His voice seemed to carry an air of complete contempt in his emotionless voice.

"Is that arm also because of this Hojo thing?" she queried.

"Hojo was the head scientist of Shin-ra," came the reply. "I was once his most prized experiment and toy."

"I think you'd better explain this to me child," she asked him.

"I am not a child," Vincent told her flatly. "I have seen over forty five years go by."

"So how long where you with this… Hojo?" She asked.

"I was his experiment from as long as six months to well over two years," he told her.

"So you don't know how long you where… experimented on?" Jiraiya asked as he scratched the back of his head.

"I can remember snippets of what happened, when I was awake and not in agony," admitted Vincent to the listeners.

"What do you remember?" Naruto asked his curiosity getting the better of him.

"How about I tell you what I went through from the beginning?" he asked the assembled crowd.

"Always better to start from the beginning," agreed Jiraiya.

Hanging his head Vincent started his story…

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Author's notes:

1 – Sorry! Mad moment there; I've been hounded by a nephew running around in a Batman cloth mask. (Which he seems to think should be worn back to front.) Running into things because the 'almighty Batman' can't see what he is doing. (Or where he is running into at the moment.) Which is proberly why that particular line came up…

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Hello again to everyone who has decided to read this story.

I know that this is not really the way I normally write but I have always wanted to try and write something that was in a kind of Point of View perspective. (So please forgive me if I foul it up, as I have never done this style of writing before.)

This story is also completely UN-beta'd. (So that means that you lot now know what happens sometimes when I get both a coffee rush and a lack of sleep high.)

I also realise that I have a tendency of sometimes repeating myself and adding one to many commas. (Ask my friend Tora Mccaw she knows all about it.)

For the next chapter I am going to try and go a bit 'dark' in my story telling. (I hope?) Trying to describe a horrific event can be daunting and strange; especially if you could count the fact that a 'Carer' who is trained in protecting the 'quality of life' of others; is trying to write what could be counted as horrific towards anyone for that matter.

The next chapter is also a flashback chapter of my Account of Vincent's past. (So if you don't like that … Sorry but that is how I see it so far.)

I am sorry if you have also been waiting for this to come out. But I have been very busy. My agency (I'm a Carer who is specialised in both home and community care.) has been trying to get me to work almost constantly lately.

I am also trying to get my other story out this weekend. But I want to get it past my Beta reader first and she is moving this weekend into her new home. So it is going to be late coming out. (Sorry to those of you who also wanted to read FMA vs. Kakashi.)

I've also had fun trying to download this onto FF Net. (I swear those poor people in administration must be having a really good headache somedays with all the going on's in this site!)