Chapter 4
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Disclaimers: I don't own Naruto, cause if I did, it'd be Shojo beat.

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Orochimaru walks towards the entrance of the hide out. He looks outside at the heavy rain that was coming down. He could hear thunder in the distance and began to worry what was taking Kabuto and Zasha such a long time to get back. Suddenly Kabuto runs through the entrance carrying a trembling Zasha in his arms.
"What happened?" Orochimaru asks. Worry begins to drown in him seeing Zasha like that but he kept a calm collected look to his face.
"We were headed back and it began to rain. Zasha started going faster and suddenly there was some thunder heard and suddenly just frozen and began to shake…." Kabuto answers. Orochimaru tries to take Zasha from Kabuto's arms but when he does the sound of thunder is heard and Zasha screams and wraps her arms around Kabuto not letting him go.
"It would appear she does not want you to let her go," Orochimaru gives him a deadly glare. "You two seem closer than this morning…"

"Eh heh…" Kabuto gives a nervous laugh. "What should we do with her?" Kabuto asks.
"Leave her in my room." Orochimaru sighs. Kabuto nods and walks down the long cold stone halls towards Orochimaru's room. He walks into a large room and candles lit everywhere and a large bookshelf and a small bed that seemed to be lost in the room. Next to the bed was a nightstand with books, papers, and scrolls placed neatly on it.

He sets Zasha on the bed… well tries to. When he tries to let go of her she won't let go of his neck. "Come on Zasha, your gonna get me in trouble, let go…" Kabuto tries to gently push her away but as the sound of thunder continues Zasha's grip on Kabuto gets tighter. He lets out a sigh and sits on the bed with her. She leans against him digging her head in his chest. He runs his hand through her hair trying to calm her down. "Don't worry its just noise…" Kabuto sighs and hums something softly to Zasha. Zasha's body soon stops shaking and she falls asleep. When she's asleep Kabuto gets up gently and adjusts her so that she's sleeping normally on the bed. He leaves the room and shuts the door.

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Deidara slowly wakes up to the sunrise. He rubs his eyes and yawns and stretches. He hated sleeping on the floor cause it made his backache but they hadn't come across any towns on the way to Orochimaru's hide out. "Hidan… wake up…" Deidara says shaking him to wake him up. Hidan stays asleep.
"…Zasha…" Hidan says in his sleep. Deidara's eyebrow twitches. He wonders what he was dreaming about and soon anger controls his actions. He forms a small clay spider and throws it at Hidan and backs away. The spider lies next to Hidan.
"Here's you wake up call yeah!" Deidara does some seals and the spider explodes. Hidan flies to the side some distance.
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?" Hidan yells fully awake.
"I told you to wake up!" Deidara fumes.

"Dude, you just woke me up from a really nice dream… Zasha was in it… and I think you were too…" Hidan rubs his head. He had a horrid headache now.
"I don't even want to know yeah," Deidara scowls as he walks off with Hidan.

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Zasha wakes up to some rays of light hitting her face. She sits up slowly and scans around the room. She looks at a chair next to her bed and sees Orochimaru sleeping in it. She yawns a little and stretches a bit. When she gets out of the bed Orochimaru's eyes open and he looks at her. She didn't notice him open his eyes and when she places her hand on the doorknob to sneak out of the room Orochimaru opens his mouth to speak. "Stay." He says calmly. Zasha jumps a little and looks at Orochimaru with a questionable look on her face. Orochimaru quickly answers the question going through her head. "No, I've been awake for sometime…" he sighs and sits up straight in the chair. "Sit… we need to have a talk." He says coldly. A shiver runs down Zasha's spine and she quickly obeys his order and sits on the bed and looks at him a bit oddly.

"Yes?" Zasha asks.

"I'd like for you to tell me about your past…" Orochimaru looks her in the eyes.

"My past?" Zasha blinks.

"Yes, like who did you grow up with and what inspired you to be a ninja, among other things." Orochimaru looks at her with a calm look and passive eyes.

Zasha looked hesitant at first, like she was thinking about telling him or not but soon figured that in order to get a better relationship with her father she'd have to tell him at some point. "Alright, I don't really remember much about mom… she died when I was five."

"I was told she died nineteen years ago from the attack of Hachibi." Orochimaru questions.

"She did die at the attack of the Hachibi…" Zasha looks down.

"Then, that would make you older than nineteen wouldn't it?" Orochimaru asks.

"No, I'm nineteen." Zasha shakes her head.

"How is that possible then…" Orochimaru gives her a spectacle look. "From records, the attack of the Hachibi happed nineteen years ago and the only survivor was an infant with the corpses of the dead parents around her." Orochimaru crosses his arms.

"My aunt Yang asked that the records of the Hachibi attack be modified for my protection." Zasha looks down.

"Why?" Orochimaru recognized the name Yang but couldn't think of who it was at the moment.

"Because, my mother had an affair… everyone had suspected she did but know one could really know if she did or not till I turned five." Zasha looks uncomfortable talking about it.

"Why till you were five?" Orochimaru asks

"If you come from the Hope clan, everyone has pale red eyes and aqua green hair. When a child is first born they have aqua green hair but if their biological father was not of the Hope clan then when a child becomes five years of age, their hair starts to change to a periwinkle gray. When that happens the mother and child are killed because the child is considered bad blood and the mother brings disgrace to their parents and betrothed spouse until they are killed as well. Usually these things are kept off records for private reasons but because the day my mother was killed was the same day as the Hachibi attack her death had to put into records and my aunt knew that they'd put death by husband unless she got them to change the records. Because if someone outside the Hope were to know then it brings disgrace back to the parents and betrothed spouse." Zasha explains. "Then shortly after that the Waterfall Village made a law stating that the Hachibi attack was not allowed to be mentioned anywhere in the village or by its villagers to keep curiosity of the incident at a minimum.

"How well do you remember the death of Kimiko?" Orochimaru asks.

"Like it was yesterday… I'll never be able to get it out of my mind…" Zasha sighs.

"Please tell me…" Orochimaru asks and sees Zasha nod her head.

Flash Back

A small five-year-old Zasha sits in her room coloring in a coloring book. The sound of thunder off in the distance and rain pelting the window has her humming happily and her long periwinkle gray hair is sprayed everywhere in an angelic fashion. When she reaches for a pink crayon to finish coloring a picture with it break on her. She hears the front door of the house open and figures it's her dad that's come home. She crawls out of bed and runs with wobbly legs over to greet him. "Daddy!" she cheers running towards the living room. She sees her dad holding up a katana towards her mom.

"Mommy!" Zasha cries out and the woman looks towards Zasha with fear in her eyes.

The father turns his head towards Zasha and his face is cold and dark. He lowers the katana and walks over to Zasha.

"Zasha! Run!" her mother yells.

Zasha looks confused and suddenly she finds herself being lifted in the air by her hair and thrown to her mother.

"I'll kill you both together!" he yells. There's a loud thunder sound that's heard and he raises his katana.

"Mommy!" Zasha cries digging her head into her mother's chest and her mother wraps her arms defensively around Zasha and digs her face in her hair. Suddenly there's a shaking sound and the father gets knocked to the ground.

"Hachibi!" some one yells from outside. Zasha's father walks to the window to see what the commotion was about.

"Zasha," her mother stands up pulling Zasha with her. "Come on lets run… don't let daddy tag you," she whispers so her husband wouldn't hear.

Zasha takes some wobbly steps forward and when she turns around to see if her mom is following she sees her father sticking the katana threw her gut. Tears begin to fall steadily down Zasha's eyes as she watches in horror as the life slowly leave her mothers eyes.

"I'll be damned if you think I'll let the Hachibi kill you before I can Kimiko!" he growls. He pulls the katana out of her and Kimiko falls to the ground. She tries to get up little by little.

The father walks towards Zasha and raises the katana and stabs it threw her and she falls to the ground. Her father kicks her towards her mother and leaves the house so that he can help get rid of Hachibi.

Zasha begins to whimper silently as tears gush from her eyes. Kimiko does her best to sit up. She leans against the wall when she finally gets her back on the wall she looks at Zasha.

"Zasha kun…" she coughs some blood in her hand. "Mommy is gonna do something, and when you get sleepy let sleep take you…" she says with a smile even though tears were running down her face. Zasha lets out a faint nod. She could feel darkness coming in and it scared her. Suddenly she feels her mother's hands on her stomach. Her hands are glowing and soon. The roof blows off the house and the sound of thunder is heard. The last thing Zasha sees are the eyes of the Hachibi staring at her. She feels her mother's pressure on her stomach become heavier.

"I love you Zasha, and I'll always protect you…" are the last words Zasha hears before being taken by darkness.

"Zasha…Zasha…" a familiar voices calls out to Zasha. She opens her eyes and looks towards in unfamiliar ceiling.

"…M…o…m…m…y…" Zasha tilts her head and looks at a young woman with aqua green hair.

"Kazoo! She's waking up! Get the doctor in here!" the woman yells at another man with aqua green hair. On the man's forehead she can sees a Rock Village forehead protector. The woman strokes her hand through Zasha's tangled hair.

"Sweetie, its me, Kimiko's big sister… aunty Yang… how are you feeling?" she asks.

"Mo-mo-mommy…" Zasha repeats.

"Mommy is dead Zasha sweetie…" Yang looks at Zasha with sad eyes. "You've been in the hospital for a week…" she watches as tears stain Zasha's flawless five-year-old face.

"Why… daddy… mommy… daddy…" Zasha's face is covered by fear.

"Daddy is dead too… a bad animal came and killed him along with the Hope Clan near the waterfall village." Yang explains. When she goes to try and calm Zasha down a bit the doctor comes running in the room to take her vitals.

End Flash back

Zasha cups her hand over her mouth and lets out a silent sob. Orochimaru doesn't look at Zasha for the moment. He just stares off into space.

"Did she ever mention me?" Orochimaru asks finally coming back to reality.

"Once…" Zasha replies calming down a little.

"Really?" Orochimaru asks with curiosity drenched in his voice.

"A few days before the Hachibi attack, my mother was sitting outside the house looking at the night sky…" Zasha begins.

Flash back

Zasha walks outside and sees her mom sitting on the floor looking at the night sky. "Mommy?" Zasha calls out. Kimiko seems to come back from the fantasy world that she was in and looks at Zasha.

"Its late Zasha what are you doing up?" Kimiko asks.

"Mr. Magi Pokier wouldn't let me sleep…" Zasha motions to the stuffed bunny she was carrying.

"He wouldn't would he?" Kimiko smiles at her daughter.

"Yeah, you didn't tuck us in so Mr. Magi Pokier couldn't get to sleep," Zasha sits next to her mom. Her pajamas were big and baggy on her so she looked lost in her own clothes.

"Oh, my apologies to Mr. Magi Pokier but didn't daddy tuck you in?" Kimiko asks.

"No, he said that he didn't want to look at me at the moment… that he was really upset… he's been a Mr. Poopie head ever since my hair became a lighter color…" Zasha pouts.

"I'm sorry I didn't tuck you in Zasha, I've just been thinking of someone lately…" She sighs.

"Who?" Zasha asks. Her eyes are big and full of wonder.

"Well, I did something really bad before I married your father and because of it its gonna end my life but… I promise I won't let it ruin yours…" she smiles.

"What did you do mommy?"

"I feel in love with a man…" Kimiko sighs.

"Love? You love a man besides daddy?" Zasha asks.

"Yes, actually he's your daddy as well…" Kimiko smiles.

"What do you mean?" Zasha asks.

"You'll understand it when your older Zasha…come on lets tuck you in to bed so Mr. Magi Pokier can let you sleep" Kimiko smiles and picks Zasha up and heads back in the house.

End Flash Back

Zasha lets out a sigh and Orochimaru nods his head after listening to this. "We better go," he breaks the silence.

"Go where?" Zasha blinks.

"We change bases every 3 weeks, this base is one of my very few that are above ground. I'm sure the Akatsuki is probably looking for you so it'd be best to move quickly to a newer base." Orochimaru stands up and leaves the room. Zasha stands up and follows after him. Her mind drifts off to her days at the Akatsuki. "…"

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Alright, crappy ending to this chapter… This week has been a huge mess and revealing some of Zasha's past was an even worse mess. -Swirls in eyes- I had to rewrite this chapter several times and I started to get scared that I wouldn't make it to the dead line. Lelia didn't OK the end when I sent this so that's why there are probably grammar mistakes galore and its kinda choppy, cause I didn't know how to end this chapter and she was gone all day and I needed to keep dead line otherwise I wouldn't sleep well tonight. I hope you enjoy the chapter cause it was a pain in the buttocks for me to get good. -Loves! - Isqi