In the Key of Freedom
The wall, Aimi decided, was not being sufficiently cooperative. It had the gall to be solid in a place were there was otherwise uniformly sorrid construction, and that had shattered the pathetic little training bangles she'd made out of dried and compressed rice and millet. It was back to air-boxing for the next few weeks at least. Well, she considered, maybe they'd get a new body in, and she could con the kilos into sparing with her some. It had been a while since that had happened and no one else was willing, the other prisoners kept a good body length away from her at all times.
Aimi the Elbow they called her, and everyone here had taken elbows and knees to sensitive places far more times than they could stomach. It hadn't won her any friends in the cells, beating the stuffing and occasional meal out of the rest of the prison population as an exercise in training, but it had accomplished things. The reputation kept leering hands and eyes away, it provided a good workout, and, even better, a reason to keep in trim, and it gave her a chance to spend her time working on her skills, not fraternizing with men whose spirits had been crushed. Spirit was one of the few things the teenage kunoichi had left.
Spirit, and a temper that unloaded like a snap-kick to the head.
Two years and running on close to seven months, if the counting of some of the old prisoners was accurate, demarcated the small eternity Aimi had been locked away. A long time when the charges are garbage, there's no end in sight, and you were only fifteen when they put you away. The worst part that it all stemmed from one bad decision, made when she was really too young to have known better. Well, Aimi recalled, maybe not. Anyone ought to know better than to back a snake in life's rat race.
"You are frightened, come with me and I'll make you stronger than fear," those had been the first words Orochimaru had spoken to her; she'd remember them forever, just like the last ones. "A pity, but your once promising development track is now an unacceptable risk that must be contained." She'd given him five years of blood, sweat, and tears, believed fully in the dream of a Hidden Sound Village, and he'd tossed her and so many others aside like bad seed before planting.
Now her dreams had a lot to do with putting several kilos of metal bangle into that white-skinned snake-eyed face. They weren't realistic in the slightest, Aimi wasn't an idiot, but they were certainly motivating.
Breathing deeply she spun herself through another practice routine, going through the endless motions of footwork, arm work, and whole body contortion necessary to her fighting style. Occasionally she used weights made from broken bits of concrete or iron rebar, but she could never really get the balance right.
That was morning practice, afternoons were for jutsu work, which was even more fruitless and frustrating, since she didn't possess the proper tools for sound generation. Despite all that, after two years and seven months of laying waste to air, walls, and any prisoner stupid enough to stay within striking distance, she wasn't the nobody she'd been when packed in the first time. One day, hopefully sooner rather than later, she intended to have the chance to demonstrate it.
Silently, in a place she let no one see deep inside, she finally had hope that it might indeed be soon. Rumor, a commodity that dispersed among prisoners faster than extra rations, said Orochimaru was dead, that the wunderkind Uchiha brat had beaten him. Aimi didn't believe it for a second, two fools that did had ended up half-dead, beaten by Karin, the mewling fangirl appointed by Orochimaru as their warden. She wasn't nearly tough enough to hold the complex on her own, and there were only a handful of other guards here, but Aimi didn't think the moment was right. The snake-man had planted rumors and been declared dead before, and trying to escape and failing was a great way to get slotted for experiments at the north base. Nevertheless, if the prisoners managed to build up the courage for a mass breakout, she'd help this time. Orochimaru couldn't be everywhere at once and once she got out, she wouldn't be caught again.
The sound of footsteps echoing down the hallway didn't stir the kunoichi from her practice. They were coming from the entrance, likely meaning a supply delivery or possibly a messenger for Karin or some other guard. Such distractions weren't worth caring about and few of the other prisoners stirred either.
When there came clear mutterings and loud words from that direction, then Aimi took notice. Something was wrong, for the cells up ahead had been disturbed from the usual reaction. That was always worth looking into.
Aimi didn't move to the wall of bars, but instead drifted back, fading in against the stones. She preserved a clear line of sight that was all she needed. Let the other prisoners be the ones noticed by whosoever had deigned to pay them a visit.
They were a pair, both young men, younger than her even. The one on the inside had a standout appearance, wearing a sleeveless coat with a belt at rib-level buckling a sword almost certainly taller than his own stature. An odd fellow, it appeared as if his teeth had been filed, giving him a crude, animalistic smile. Aimi did not recognize him, something that was noteworthy, for as an actual Sound Village member, and not one of the later snatches, she could at least match the faces of most of the notables to her memory, whether prisoner or guard.
The other boy was a bishounen, with that casual, arrogant way of dressing and walking, the sense of entitlement that Aimi, born to rice farmers in an abusive household, despised. He wore one of the elite sound uniforms as if he were too good for it, coat pulled open, rope bow poorly tied, sword bound in a position from which it would have to be shifted before being drawn. His body language alone was enough to make Aimi feel like throttling him; that he was Uchiha Sasuke made her positively seethe.
Sharingan-wielding snot-nosed insect with a brother complex! You got me stuck in here! Me and everyone else! Sasuke's defection had been the reason for Aimi's prison sentence. The sound-based techniques Orochimaru had given to her and several dozen other youth to develop were a 'threat' to the doujutsu-wielding Uchiha, and for whatever reasons inside his labyrinthine snake-man head Orochimaru had locked that threat away.
She longed for nothing quite so much as to demonstrate just how much of a threat to the Uchiha she really could be.
The other prisoners were talking, babbling really, when one shouted. "Th...That's it! He defeated Orochimaru so, he came to free us!"
The blatant desperation underneath that plea disgusted Aimi, but the thought was intriguing. Orochimaru was nowhere to be seen, and by all indication the Uchiha boy was practically glued to his snakeskin hips. Certainly he had never been among the prisoners alone before.
If Orochimaru really is dead, what happens to us? Aimi wondered, and she didn't like many of the answers. The Uchiha might have defeated him, but running a massive secret organization wasn't just about power, it took real work, and she figured no fifteen year old had that kind of patience. Besides, the medic, Kabuto, wasn't present, and Aimi had watched carefully, it was that one who was Orochimaru's real right hand ninja.
If Orochimaru is dead, this base will surely be found by ninja from one of the villages, likely soon, but how soon? Will we rot and starve here while we wait? Will the villages free us, or put us on trial? Thinking deeper, Aimi realized that those things didn't matter either. If the Uchiha simply ignored them and left, conducting whatever his business with Karin, Aimi recognized the bitch's voice from down the hall, he'd come for, the prisoners would overpower the guards and break free in a matter of hours. So, either he sets us free, we get free on our own from an abandoned base, the kunoichi didn't rate the guard's intelligence very highly, but they wouldn't stick around to be gutted in a riot with this visit behind them, or he comes through and kills us all. It wasn't a matter of ability; anyone who could take Orochimaru on could surely murder a bunch of unarmed, dispirited prisoners, especially if the guards joined in. Aimi resolved that if the moment came, she'd at least give a good accounting of herself.
There was a long period of silence, after the two visitors disappeared to one of the guardrooms with Karin. The waiting was an annoyance, as Aimi had never been a particularly patient person and prison hadn't yet enforced that rule upon her. Nevertheless, she held her body together, despite burning inside.
A single set of footsteps came back, a puzzling thing, and the imprisoned kunoichi wasted long seconds in pointless speculation as the sound approached the cells.
Passing by the corner revealed the boy with the massive sword. He bent down in front of the small door in the bars, and it was clear he was holding the key.
The other prisoners started chattering immediately. Aimi stayed silent, listening, wondering. It seemed they were to be freed, though she couldn't really believe it until the youth opened the lock. She found his request, that they spread rumors of Sasuke defeating Orochimaru and freeing them, of bringing peace to the world, pathetic. That Uchiha punk wasn't ordering them free out of gratitude, or even if he was all that meant was that he was a fool. To a sound ninja he was the reason for her imprisonment in the first place, forgiveness wasn't so easily earned. If he'd really killed Orochimaru though, and Aimi still wasn't sure she believed that, then she supposed he'd done them all a favor. Consider it a clean slate for the moment Uchiha brat, and I hope I never see you again.
The kunoichi shuffled out with the other prisoners, taking in the light of the sun again for the first time in many weeks. It was blissful, but she would not be distracted. Most of the others broke and separated immediately heading for the hills or all manner of destinations. The teenage sound ninja only went about two hundred meters, to hide away in the woods.
It was all very well for the others to flee aimlessly, many of them had homes or villages to go back to, or old criminal friends they could look up. Aimi, having joined Orochimaru after a rogue ninja killed the traveling entertainers who had become her adopted family at the age of ten, had nothing of the kind. She might be a ninja, but she wasn't about to face the world after two years and seven months barefoot in a dirty prison smock. She knew full well that somewhere in that prison complex was food, gear, clothing, and most important of all the special bangles Orochimaru had made for her.
So she waited, hiding in the undergrowth and camouflaged by a bushin that appeared to by sleeping in the trees above. Aimi knew of Karin's chakra sensitivity, but as long as she stayed within a few meters of her bushin the deception wouldn't be detected until Karin was right in front of her.
The trio of young ninja, led by the Uchiha brat, exited shortly thereafter. Karin tossed her an idle glance, but nothing more than that, as anticipated. They headed off toward a road that led north. Going to the north base? Aimi wondered. It didn't really concern her. She had no intention of heading to that hellhole where the snake-man had turned people into monsters. The remaining handful of guards left about an hour or so later, many with heavy backpacks, taking whatever valuables they could bear; a smart choice overall.
When they were gone Aimi headed inside once more, swearing silently that it would be the final time.
There was still light inside, straining from the guttering string of light bulbs wired to the tunnel ceiling. Orochimaru's guards had never been the most diligent of ninja and the long idleness had made them truly lazy. No one had bothered to turn off the generator before leaving. It brought a smile to the kunoichi's face. She didn't mind darkness, there'd been plenty of time to befriend it in prison, but looking for things was easier with light.
The guardrooms within were unlocked, except for one where the door had apparently taken the worse of introductions to the file-toothed boy's large sword. Food was the easiest to find, though there was little suitable for travel and so the raider had to make do with a small satchel of dried fruit and nuts and a handful of rice balls. It wouldn't last but food was not hard to get on the road. Water, next, from the small tank in the deepest of the storage rooms. It was foul tasting stuff, laced with too much iron and a twinge of sulfur, but it had been treated and that was good enough for the moment. The kunoichi filled a pair of canteens, enough for a day on the road, which ought to get her to a town somewhere.
Clothing was more difficult, especially as she was a handful of centimeters taller than Karin, slightly bustier, and carrying significantly more muscle. She also had a real set of hips, unlike the little one in her short-shorts. The consequences of being just a little closer to maturity, but it meant she couldn't steal any of her ostensible warden's clothes. Still, Aimi found a halfway decent jumpsuit in one of the guard's rooms that stretched to fit her well enough, and a judo jacket to put over that. The color wasn't the gray-brown or green she preferred, rather a stony-brown dirt tone, but it would do. She did manage to find a green ribbon to use as a belt, and ninja sandals and a pouch for gear.
The armory, such as it was, did remain locked, but Aimi had taken the ring of keys from Karin's room, so that proved to be no obstacle at all. More significant was the ransacking the guards had clearly conducted on their way out. No that she blamed them; the kunoichi would have done exactly the same thing in their place. Ninja gear was worth good money on the black market, and most of this stuff had been obtained illegally anyway. Despite the damage, a little rummaging was enough for Aimi to requisition herself a set of kunai and shuriken, a bit battered and dinged up though they might be. She added a reel of wire, a file, a few spare smoke bombs, and even a still functioning if scratchy radio headset. The first aid kits had been thoroughly plundered of valuable medical supplies, but there were still bandages, tweezers, and some sterile alcohol available, all in all better than nothing. There were no soldier pills, flashbangs, or the precious explosion notes, however, and the teenage ninja was certain she'd feel the lack before long.
This done there was only the question of her bangles. She had to look hard, and eventually smash down a little bit of false drywall, but she eventually found a crate labeled 'contraband.' Presumably Karin had hidden all the prisoners' specialized equipment from the various lesser guards.
Wrenching the crate open with a kunai Aimi had to paw through an astonishing assortment of ninja castoffs, but she soon found what she desired. Her bangles, and amazingly, the light green gloves and socks that had been tailored for their use. Those didn't fit anymore, but they could be used by a tailor to pattern new ones. Yet it was the wheels of metal that the kunoichi treasured above all else she had found combined.
They were not ordinary bangles, indeed most people would have likely though them machine parts instead of something to be worn. They were massive. The wheel rim was as wide as her hand was long and the diameter close to the width of her head. The metal ring itself was thicker than her thumb. Altogether they were obviously weapons, not stage tools, when worn. It was not just size that made them special, running her fingers over the surface Aimi could feel the precision construction and honeycombing that would build and carry sound and chakra, making them weapons of jutsu far more deadly than simply bone-breakers. They were heavy and solid, being made of rare metals including titanium alloy. Holding them again after over two and a half years the kunoichi felt restored as a ninja.
Finding her long lost weapons put Aimi in a better mood than she'd been in months. She made a point of turning the power off before she left.
Staring at the setting sun from atop a nearby hill, the teenage ninja considered her options. They were not exactly voluminous. Hidden Sound was well and truly dead, and now Orochimaru, who had operated what was actually a truly massive hidden remnant order, was gone too. Even at its height the village had been fake anyway, possessing no true authority. This left Aimi without any standing in the world of the ninja, she was a nameless rogue with no village to vouch for or protect her. No contacts in the outside world to provide work and wages either. Not that she really needed a job, exactly, she could steal most anything she needed from peasants and townsfolk who would never now, and was a good enough performer to get some extra money that way. She wasn't looking at starvation, and with no one looking for her disappearing into the background of the world would be easily.
This prospect, while comfortable, wasn't enough. Such a life would be merely surviving, and Aimi had spent two years and seven months learning just how unsatisfied that made her. She would not go back to a form of prison, no matter how comfortable it might be, she was going to remain in the world of the ninja.
Firm though she was in her resolve, there were significant difficulties. Aimi might be able to find work as a rogue ninja, the other prisoners had often explained how there were always jobs in the bigger towns, but that was a very dangerous path, it meant going up against better prepared and outfitted village ninja, and eventually some one would get you. Trying to join a village was another option, but she knew that times were hard in many places and recruiting was no priority. Further, she had no real accomplishments to her name, no way to impress a Kage that she would be useful. She had information on Orochimaru, which, up until today, could have been very useful leverage, but no longer.
I really don't have any good choices, Aimi recognized. I could really use some help. Two ninja had a markedly better chance of surviving than one, and the number tended to increase until you built up a crowd. The kunoichi had no friends among the prisoners from the south base, she'd intimidated them all too much, but she realized that might not be complete destitution. Orochimaru had broken the group of sound users up, to keep them from communicating and working together. Likely some survived among the other hidden outposts, and several had been friends.
Aimi would not head to the north base, she wanted no part in that place or Uchiha Sasuke, but there were other locations, including a base to the west that she had once been too. If it was still there, and prison scuttlebutt suggested it was, she might find something useful. If nothing else, the kunoichi acknowledged, it's some place to go.
