I know, I know! You're always watching, damnit.
I cannot believe I'm about to share any of this, but I'm being forced to do this by Lord Orochimaru, so I don't have a choice.
Anyway, it ended up taking me longer than the week earplug-guy had told me it would, though it wasn't because the distance was longer or because I got lost. No, it was because I actually had to fight my way to reach it. There wasn't a day that went by where I wasn't attacked by some trash ninjas. Knowing my luck, it was probably some friends of those other ones who I had been stupid enough to have kept alive. It was a mistake that I didn't make again. Every ninja dumb enough to attack me was killed by my Doki. Ever since that first encounter, I had simply resorted to using them rather than genjutsu because any of the ninjas I faced could have been like earplug-guy, simply pretending to be under the genjutsu's effects to catch me off guard. I didn't put it past them.
The village I finally arrived at much later than I had wanted to was eerily quiet. No one was out of their homes, and some of the windows were boarded up. The buildings were in various states of decay, and vines crept up the walls. I could tell this place had long been abandoned, though why it was I couldn't figure out. There was no sign of life, not even birdsong or cricket chirps. I kept going regardless, my suspicion growing by the second. This place practically screamed ambush, and I wasn't about to let my guard down, especially because I hadn't been attacked once the entire day. If there was going to be an attack today, this would be it. Though, by the time I reached the center of the cluster of buildings, I wasn't sure which would wear me down first: attackers or the constant paranoia of said attackers.
The answer came quickly, though not in the way I expected it. A hand shot up from the ground, grabbing my leg while trying to pull me under with them. I stomped on their arm with my other leg, forcing them to let go. As I jumped back, the arm pulled itself out of the ground, revealing the body attached to it. I instantly recognized him as one of the original shinobi who had attacked me over a week ago. "Happy to see me?" he said with a grin.
"Very," I responded with as much sarcasm as I could throw into one word. His friends quickly joined him and surrounded me. I recognized one of these four worms as the other shinobi from that same attack. I looked around at each of them, not letting one of them sneak up on me. "So which one of you is the leader because I'm getting tired of this crap! I just want to know where Setsuko is, damnit." Upon the first shinobi's laughter, I added, "What the hell is so funny?"
"You think one of us is the leader?" the first one asked, snorting. I turned my attention to him. They didn't look like they were going to attack just yet, so I was safe for now. "Like one of us could be that! No, we serve Lord Orochimaru."
"Lord?" I scoffed, fighting the urge to laugh at the absurdity. He must be so full of himself if he's having his followers call him "lord", I thought. "What the hell does he want with me?"
"I don't know," the kunoichi of the group said, obviously not too happy about that. "He just told us to take you down but to keep you alive. You must have done something that caught his attention."
"Well I don't want it," I responded, "so go tell your Orochi-whatever that these attacks are just pissing me off. If he has a problem with me, he should fight me himself rather than send your sorry asses."
Still laughing, the first one replied, "Trust me, you don't want that."
"Why?" I asked with false innocence, though it didn't last. My lips formed a wide grin as I said, "Cause you're afraid a girl will kick your lord's ass?"
"You'll regret believing that." The jovial tone he had kept up so far was gone, replaced with a seriousness that put me on edge. Was this 'lord' guy actually that strong, or was the shinobi in front of me just delusional? I didn't have a chance to decide. He rushed at me, sword poised to strike. I moved aside before rushing through the opening his attack created. I wasn't about to fight them all at once on all sides. Jumping onto the nearest rooftop, I pulled my flute out, summoning all three Doki with my song. I wasn't taking a chance with this, not with how many there were. I sent my Doki on a rampage towards them, forcing them to split up so I could take them down easier. The fight was admittedly tougher than the previous ones, though whether it was because of the increased numbers or the opponent's strength being higher I wasn't sure. Several minutes passed before the last one laid dead at my feet. I sighed in relief, somewhat tired from having to fight them for so long. I put my flute away, ready to be on my way-
"Such a shame that my subordinates were defeated by such a tiny girl."
I spun around, cursing my luck of having to fight yet another one of these idiots. As soon as I saw the man who had spoken, though, I realized my luck was so much worse than I thought. At the time, I hadn't noticed his long black hair or his attire or even how unnaturally pale he was. The only thing my eyes saw was his eyes, golden eyes that instantly reminded me of a snake.
My own words echoed faintly in my mind as I stood there, petrified by terror under his gaze. "Whatever monsters might be out there, I'm their worst nightmare. Let the monsters come to me. I'm not afraid of them." At the time, they had been the taunting insults of a soulless fiend whose only purpose was to find a sister, the shell of a girl who had been long lost to the demonic insanity consuming her. Now, they sounded like the words of a fool, a very foolish girl who had no idea what monsters laid in wait for her. I was no queen of monsters, and if the big bad monsters in this world had a ruler, I was pretty damn sure it was this man whose appearance alone terrified me. Not that I was gonna let him know that for long. I glared at him, and I would have made a favorite gesture of mine that heavily involved the use of a certain finger, but I found myself completely unable to move. Was it because deep down I was still terrified, or was there something more to it besides fear? "I am not fucking tiny, you damn bastard," I snapped at last, fighting both to move and to keep the fear out of my voice.
Unfortunately, neither one worked. My body was completely frozen, and he smirked, obviously enjoying how scared I was of him. "To think that a few minutes ago you were so sure you could defeat me." Finally, it sunk in that this was these idiots' leader...Orochimaru.
My fear was suppressed by the intense rage I felt flare up in me. It was this bastard who kept me from finding Setsuko, who kept sending these idiots after me, and for what? What had I done that led to this shit in the first place? I found myself finally able to move, and with a grin, finally gave that choice gesture that I had wanted to earlier. "That hasn't changed, you fool. You'll see. I won't lose to you!" With that, I sent my Doki forward to destroy this asshole so I could go back to my search.
Let me just say, real quick, that this is so much easier said than actually done.
I figured one would be enough to handle this, so I desummoned the Iwazaru and Mizaru, leaving the clawed Kikazaru to fight. It was by far my favorite of the three, able to hit quicker than the others. Sure, it's blind as crap, but it didn't need sight. I was its sight, and I could see just fine. I was somewhat unnerved that Orochimaru didn't make any attempt to move away, but ignored it as overconfidence on his end. I began to play once again, the Doki plowing forward to slice this guy into pieces. I grinned as he was shredded by my fighter...until I saw the logs clatter to the ground. Substitution. "Shit," I muttered, summoning the armless Iwazaru. It was funny sometimes watching that one flop around, and the destruction it could cause? It was beautiful. I called the Kikazaru back to my side, having them guard me against wherever that Orochimaru guy was. He got lucky, that was all. I wouldn't miss a second time.
I turned around upon hearing him chuckle as he emerged from the shadows. "That won't work on me," he said, goading me into attacking him. A bit annoyed at his arrogance, I recklessly sent the both of them at him at once to attack him from either side. He leaped out of the way at the last second, letting them collide right into each other. I winced at this but knew they could handle it. They were basically indestructible and could definitely take a hit from each other. Personal experience. I sent Iwazaru to flop onto Orochimaru before sending Kikazaru next. No way was I having them make fools out of themselves again. He easily avoided all their attacks, all the while with a smirk on his face that pissed me off more than the fact that I couldn't hit him. I finally summoned Mizaru, hesitating for a second. That one brought memories back of when I first learned how to summon them and, more importantly, of my sister. It hurt.
I never should have hesitated. In the seconds it took to get my focus, he had gotten past my Doki, standing still from lack of command from my flute. I barely managed to lurch back before he could punch me in the face. The tables had turned, and now I was the one on the defensive. It took all my concentration just to keep from getting hit myself. During one of those moments, I was able to pull out a kunai, throwing it to try and get him to back off. It didn't even manage to do that and earned me a kick in the ribs for my trouble. I was thrown back, the only good thing being it sent me right behind Mizaru. I went back to playing my flute, wanting nothing more than to pummel this guy into a pulp. I sent one after the other, making sure he didn't get an opening like last time. An idea then came to my head. The genjutsu. It would end this fight in an instant, and I could get out of here and go back to finding Setsuko. I slowly backed away from the Doki, hiding behind a house that was barely even standing. It was all too easy for me to switch melodies, and I knew I had to have him with that. There was no way he'd realize what it was until it was too late. After it was finished, I leaned against the wall. How it was still standing was beyond me. I wished I could have some time to rest, but I had to get going before he got out of the genjutsu and sent more of his people to bring me down.
I was startled when I was thrown forcefully against the wall. The wood crumbled under my weight, and I scrambled into the rubble to escape another hit while I was down. Orochimaru was standing over me, still with that goddamn smirk on his face. Was there ever a moment where this guy wasn't so damn full of himself? I whipped out another kunai and threw it as quickly as I could. He didn't even flinch as it flew past him. I'll admit that I never had the best aim, and of course, I had to miss when it actually mattered. There was no time to figure out how he had escaped the genjutsu, or maybe even completely avoided it altogether. I jumped back, going through what used to be the window in the opposite wall. Flute to my lips, I called my Doki back to me and sent them crashing into the building. Of course, it didn't manage to even hurt him, but what else should have expected? I was learning this guy was much too powerful for something like that to bring him down.
As this cycle continued, I began to realize the outcome of this fight had always been decided, and it wasn't with me winning. He made this fight look like child's play, which, considering my fighting experience was me learning by myself over the last several months, probably was true. I was painfully aware that this wasn't a fight I could win, but it didn't cause me to panic. If anything, I grew more and more frustrated with each miss. That was my undoing. Fuck, I only fucking had a few fucking methods of attack to fucking begin with - fucking pummel the fuck out of whatever fucking fucker I was fucking facing with Doki (which wasn't fucking working), fucking use fucking genjutsu (that wasn't even doing fucking shit so I fucking stopped that fucking shit after the fourth fucking time), and fucking throwing the fucking kunai (and fucking missing with every fucking one) - and the fucking frustration only fucking made me that much more fucking predictable, as if I fucking wasn't already fucking predictable enough to fucking begin with. The fucking worst fucking part of this entire fucking shit: the fucking bastard was fucking toying with me the entire fucking time like the fucking asshole he fucking was because fuck the fucking fact that I just fucking wanted to fucking find my fucking sister!
If it isn't clear yet, I was pissed.
Eventually, he must have gotten bored of this game, and it was then I found out I was so royally screwed. He summoned a giant fucking snake. The thing's head had to be as big as mine. It stared down at me with evil eyes, as if trying to decide whether it was worth going after its prey...that being me. I stared right back at it, ready to play my flute to have my Doki protect me from whatever the snake decided to do. My breath came in shallow pants, and I could barely breathe with the fear choking my lungs. My heart pounded in my chest; I could have sworn that they could hear it. Any other time, I would have laughed it off, but this was fear on a whole different level, one that I had never felt in my entire life up until that moment.
When the snake lunged after what felt like hours but was probably only a couple seconds, I was slow to react due to the fear that had taken over my entire body. It wrapped itself around me, hissing all the while. I went to play my flute, but my arms became trapped in the coils of the snake's body before I could even try. I flailed frantically, screaming obscenities galore, as I tried in vain to free myself. I thought, If I can just get my arms free, I might be able to-wait, are those...feathers? What the fuck? Is this actually happening? It wasn't, of course. After all, since when did a bunch of white feathers just fall from the fucking sky? I realized too late that it was nothing more than a fucking genjutsu, kind of like what I had been trying to use against Orochimaru, just before I lost consciousness.
A chapter early? Since when?
Since now apparently, because I really wanted to share this chapter now.
Before I say anything else, when I first wrote this, I was so shocked that Tayuya hadn't dropped the f-bomb yet that I thought it would be funny to see how many I could drop within two (very long) sentences. The number? 39. Yes. I counted. Plus my three shits and an asshole. And then I had the word count of 142 words in these two sentences. That means less than every fourth word (it's nearly 3 and a half words per f***) is some variation of that word, mostly -ing. If you go by swear words, that number is even less. Nearly 3 and a fourth.
To be honest, I'm not sure how much of this adult language is even allowed, because FanFiction is very vague on its rating scale in terms of what exactly is allowed, but I swear (hehe) there is currently no additional "cluster f-bombs" in this story, and if there ends up being one it will certainly not be to this insanity. There is still use of the word, just...not to that crazy extent. If it actually isn't allowed, please please PLEASE send me a message and let me know. I'll fix it as soon as I know and it'll be the end of it. I just wanted to have a good laugh with this.
I also want to point out the fact that I get way too in character when I write some of these. I remember this part originally took me so long because I'd get so terrified myself that I couldn't even write. This also happened in later ones too and is likely to happen in later parts. It's great sometimes, but it ends up becoming too powerful. Even now, I had to take breaks from editing this and actually writing the fight between Tayuya and Orochimaru (it wasn't an actual fight in the original), and I swear through most of it I kept on looking behind me because I was scared someone was there.
Oh, by the way, "Lord Orochimaru2703" is an amazing friend of mine, and we came up with this silly idea of leaving reviews as if it's Lord Orochimaru himself. Tayuya's reactions to the review for the previous part is what is at the beginning before the story itself. I had planned on explaining it last chapter but it kind of slipped my mind. Seems to be a running trend in these chapters.
And thank you Pcykosis for following this story! For some reason, it didn't email me this, so if you had followed before the last chapter I'm sorry about that!
