Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Shione draws the ratty blanket closer around her as she hears someone walking down the hallway outside the cell block. If that person comes in her cell or close to her cell, Shione doesn't want anyone to see how pathetically thin her clothing has become.
She supposes that the reason the hebi-teme captured her in the first place is because of her strange ability with chakra. A friend of hers with a dÅjutsu once told her that her chakra was like a void, that her chakra was the antithesis of living chakra, and that he hadn't seen anything like it except when hearing reports of the Nibi no Nekomata's chakra. What it does is allow Shione to feel "imprints" of those who have been in a place before her. Shione's ears are filled with the wails and whispers of past prisoners.
All Shione doesn't know at this point is what exactly Orochimaru wants with her.
The lock on the door is undone, and the door creaks open loudly.
Shione recognizes the person walking in. She doesn't know his name (and she'll be amazed if he knows hers), but she's seen him often enough. He's a kid, in his mid to late teens, who wears a Leaf headband. She's almost certain that his exclusive function in Orochimaru's "lair" is as med nin; the only time he ever brings the food is when Shione has some sort of medical ailment or injury.
The boy kneels down on the floor beside her, handing her a tray with the daily rations on it. Shione brushes her filty, matted blue black hair (once it barely reached past her shoulders, but now she's pretty sure it falls well past her waist), and promptly devours the rations. It's not what she would consider palatable, but the time when Shione would boycott rations for want of edible food is long over. All throughout the boy observes her the way a scientist would a lab rat while performing an experiment.
"One of the guards reported that you had a hard cough. Turn around."
It doesn't even occur to Shione to say no as she sits with her back to him, wincing as she feels a hand plant itself between her shoulders, the pressure sharply painful on her now-bony back.
"Why is such a young kid working for Orochimaru?" Shione demands abruptly; the words blurt out of the Earth country kunoichi's usually taciturn mouth.
Shione can't bring herself to like any of her jailors, but this kid she can get along with. He reminds her of all the wrong people. He reminds her of her twin brother who was disappointed when they didn't get put on the same genin team. He reminds her of the ANBU kunoichi who had overseen her training, who died so many years ago, the ANBU she referred to as senpai. He reminds her of every med nin she ever met, quietly competent.
He doesn't answer, just continues to perform what she considers a diagnostic.
She tacks another question. "How long have I been here?" Shione turns round so her piercing virid eyes meet the boy's impassive black ones.
His mask falters. "I'm not sure. Since before Orochimaru-sama began to employ me. At least six years."
Shione blinks numbly. Six years. She had been there for over six years, probably longer. That meant that she had to be in at least her early thirties now. Hardly any less shocking was the implication that had been in the boy's laconic words, that Orochimaru was sending his personal medic to take care of her. Why? She no longer bothered to ask why she was here; she knew that that question would never receive an answer.
"I'll be back tomorrow morning with antibiotics, Shione-san." So he does know my name. Shione nods, hearing the door slam shut, and the last flicker of light leaving, enveloping her in darkness once more, leaving her alone with the whispers of the dead. And for the first time in many years, Shione sinks down into darkness and weeps.
Shione is the name I gave to the woman whose body Orochimaru is shown to inhabit during his fight with the Sandaime Hokage. She doesn't seem to have a name, so I gave her one. I figured that if Orochimaru was going to possess this woman's body, she probably had some weird kekkei genkai.