A/N: Soooooo. This took a while. A very long while. BUT, it's finally here. Thanks for staying with me this far guys, and I hope you guys are willing to stick with me a little longer!

Chapter 20:

I could almost hear the rest snickering at me, from wherever they had chosen to hide themselves, as I walked into the estate of the target.

It was nearly suffocating to walk in a kimono, especially one made for girls, but given that this was a fancy party the nobleman was throwing, I had little choice in attire if I wanted to blend in. And to add insult to injury, there was all the makeup.

There were layers and layers caked onto my face, with all kinds of colors and undertones. Guren had taken it upon herself to make it feel like my face was caked with mud in her efforts to help me achieve beauty worthy of nobility.

'Stop moving! You need to look pretty, Kagura! Or no one will believe you're the heiress of a noble clan!'

It was obvious she had enjoyed herself, no doubt seeing the endeavor as some kind of petty revenge for all the times I'd defeated her in training.

"Invitation?" When a guard suddenly stopped me, I made a slightly displeased face, hoping to portray the persona of spoiled noble girl. Learning the voice had been the hardest.

I pull out an ornate scroll. "I'm the heiress of the Yamazaki Clan. My parents are unwell. They have sent me in their stead." In truth all three members of the Yamazaki clan were knocked out with sleeping pills, assuming Jirobo had done his part well. Then again, I had a sneaking suspicion that the lazy boy had simply killed them.

The guard took a good look at the invitation, leveled a bored look at my face and then let me through. It was almost insulting how easy it was. It wasn't a testament to how good Guren's skill with makeup was, but simply another reminder that despite being thirteen years old now, I could easily pass off for a girl four years younger. I wondered if Yagura, like me, still retained a childlike appearance.

I followed another family into the main manor, paying particular attention to how I walked. Impersonation and stealth had been the first thing Orochimaru had drilled into me since deserting Konoha, and his "survival outweighs victory" approach wasn't something I could really argue against. It had been difficult to mimic the gait and poise of a girl that could only be described as 'nobility-in-training,' but after hours of observation, the fact that no one paid me a second look meant that my efforts had paid off.

This was an assassination, the subtle kind. Our target's death was meant to be treated as an unforeseen accident—an event that would have people mourning, but not investigating. Otogakure was still in its developmental stages, and Orochimaru wanted to draw as little attention as possible to the budding village.

This particular nobleman had been sticking his nose into places it didn't belong, and someone wanted him dead. I wasn't sure how Orochimaru managed to secure these contracts while keeping a low profile, but then again, there were a lot of things about him I still didn't know.

The main atrium was bustling with people dressed in expensive-looking clothes. The host, my target, was a pudgy bald man lounging on a sofa, who seemed more interested in his food than the small crowd of guests who wanted to talk to him.

Perfect.

"I'd like to have a cup of tea," I told a passing waitress, gesturing to the only non-alcoholic beverage on her tray. Her ensuing smile looked forced, but she handed the cup to me anyway.

With that, the assassination finally began.

I took a few sips as I walked around the place. Unlike in ninja villages, people in civilian settlements seemed fond of displaying their wealth for all to see. It seemed rather silly to me, like painting a big bulls-eye on your property, and regularly opening your house for parties only made it easier for potential pillagers to get away with thievery.

Or in my case, murder.

I'd finally reached my destination; the manor was a lot bigger than I'd thought, and finding the kitchen took me a surprising amount of time.

Without knocking, I walked right in, causing the occupants within to stop whatever they were doing, their attention stolen away by the sight of an unknown girl walking into their workplace as if she owned it.

I raised my cup. "Who makes the tea?" I asked.

Slowly, a woman wearing an apron in the corner raised her hand. She had an apprehensive look, and I walked towards her with as much confidence as I could muster. The other chefs, all working on platters of exquisite-looking dishes, returned to their work.

"It's delicious," I said with a smile as I neared her, causing her to look relieved.

"Thank you. I grow the tea leaves myself," she admitted.

"Really?" I said, trying to sound as intrigued and innocent as possible. "No wonder it tastes so different from anything I've tried!"

"Your words are too kind, madam."

It was a little strange for a woman in her thirties to sound so respectful towards someone not even half her age, but just like how ninjas ruled ninja villages, I supposed nobility ruled places like this.

"Could I perhaps take some of your tea leaves home? I find it such a shame that my parents are unable to have a taste of this. They are quite enamored with tea the way some people are with wine."

It surprised me when the woman blushed a little. "I'd be honored if you did, madam. My name is Shitori Kanna, if your parents would like to contact me in the future."

As she prepared a small bag of tea leaves for me, I realized she was trying to solicit business from my non-existent family. I realized that among everyone in the kitchen, her clothes were the most tatty. Her services were probably not very high in demand; tea could be bought after all.

As she handed the parcel to me, I pulled out a small pouch of coins—something I'd prepared in the event I'd needed to bribe anyone—and pressed it into her palm. "I can't accept it for free. Please do take this."

She was at a loss of words, but unfortunately I didn't have time to wait for a response. I was on a mission after all.

I quickly left the kitchen, pouring a few tea leaves into my palm as I did so.

They were long dead and almost dried up, and thus they wouldn't be able to store much chakra. But it was alright—I didn't need them to store that much in the first place.

I returned to the main atrium only to find that my target was still where I'd left him, gorging himself on his food. I did a quick walk-by to make sure his cup still had some tea in it, which it did.

It took a long time, but with perfect control of both my patience and my chakra, I managed to slip three chakra-imbued tea leaves into his cup unnoticed.

When he took a sip, I triggered the Petal Star Jutsu, sending all three of them down his throat. And now, it was only a matter of time before he took another bite.

His eyes suddenly went wide, and his fingers began to claw at his throat. He made heaving actions, but no sound came out of his mouth.

"He's choking!" someone said in alarm, running over.

I had to pretend to look shocked as well, even as I fought to keep the smirk off my lips.

The body Orochimaru brings in still has the kunai that killed him lodged between his eyes.

Orochimaru calls me over. "We are having a quick anatomy lesson, Kagura," he declares, expertly slicing up the cadaver's throat.

I quickly run over. Blood gushes all over the improvised operating table and I wince when I realize I will be the one cleaning the mess up. When the flow of blood ends, Orochimaru tilts the head to reveal a cross section of a human neck I've only seen in textbooks.

"This is the epiglottis," Orochimaru says disinterestedly as he points to flap of tissue. "It closes up when you're swallowing so your food doesn't end up in your windpipe."

It is a brief lesson, because the next thing Orochimaru does is to stick the entire length of his hand down the man's gullet. When he pulls it out, he's holding a scroll. The man must have swallowed it before dying.

"Take care of this," Orochimaru orders.

It wasn't a very informative lesson, but it was enough. My tea leaves were currently forcing the man's epiglottis open, diverting the meat bun he just ate into his windpipe instead.

Nobody would ever suspect choking on food to be a means of murder.

It took slightly more than a minute, but my target finally stopped moving, despite the attempts of bystanders to clear his airway. No amount of back-slapping was going to save him, not when chakra was involved. A hushed silence descended among the crowd. Suddenly someone burst through the first row of onlookers, and a girl no older than I was rushed to my target's side, tears already streaming down her cheeks.

I took that as my cue to leave.

No one told me he had a daughter.

The makeup took forever to remove.

Guren folded her arms and leaned against the door. "The four of them still can't guess how you did it. They keep thinking it's poison."

I shrugged. "Maybe it is."

She gave me a pointed look. "I saw you slip the tea leaves into his cup."

"And I thought was being sneaky," I said, pretending to sound hurt.

"It helps that I know what I'm looking for."

Our short conversation was interrupted when four children brushed past Guren and surrounded me.

"How'd you do that, Kagura?" Tayuya, the red-headed girl asked.

I shot her a glare.

She gulped. "Kagura-senpai," she amended.

Out of the Sound Four, Orochimaru's handpicked elite among the abducted children, Tayuya was the only one I had a hand in retrieving.

The woman coughs out a wad of blood as she somehow finds the strength to look me in the eye. For someone that has seven kunai embedded in their torso, there is a surprising amount of life in her eyes. Behind her, her house burns and with it, the remains of her decapitated husband are reduced to ashes.

They had put up a good fight, but Orochimaru's orders had been clear. Only the child was to be kept alive and taken to him along with the Flute. They had not expected an eleven-year-old boy to be their executioner and had thus let down their guards, a mistake they certainly won't have a chance to repeat again.

"Tayuya. Her name is Tayuya," she manages to say.

I look down at the unconscious red-haired toddler in my arms. A quick genjutsu and Orochimaru will ensure none of her memories before this night remain.

I look back at the woman. There is no more fight left in her eyes, only a pleading look.

"I'll make sure she knows that," I promise her.

I let the woman die while holding on to her daughter's tiny hand.

I wondered what her life would have been like if I hadn't interfered. She'd probably be a Kusa-nin, like her parents were, but at least she'd have a real family.

"It has to be poison!" Jirobo declared haughtily. "Kagura didn't even touch the guy once!"

Tayuya shot me a look, annoyed that I let her plump compatriot call me by name. I shrugged. I only bothered enforcing it with Tayuya because...well, because she reminded me a little bit of Anko, and my senior had put me through hell with the whole 'senpai' honorific thing.

"It's not poison," I say calmly, looking out the window.

Someone's there, I signed to Guren, who pretended not to see anything. Her fingers slipping into her pocket were the only indication she received my message.

"Then what is it?!" Sakon asked impatiently.

"I didn't do anything," I said casually. "He choked before I got the chance to do anything. I got lucky."

"Yeah, right," Kidomaru scoffed. "There are no such things as coincidences in the ninja world. That's the first thing Orochimaru-sama said to us."

The kunai was already in my hand and pointed right at Kidomaru's throat. "You idiot!" I seethed. And here I thought Guren had instructed them on how to behave outside of Otogakure. The semblance of pride I had felt yesterday at seeing the results of their training was completely gone. Such idiocy could have compromised the mission if he'd slipped up under different circumstances.

But it was already too late. The rustling of leaves was all the warning we got before we found ourselves surrounded by four Konoha-nin.

Three male, one female, all at least Chunin-leveled.

The kunoichi had a katana in her hands, and it was pointing straight at me. "You're the leader, aren't you? State your relationship with Orochimaru!"

Judging by the air of authority she had, she was the squad captain. And judging by the sheer amount of venom in her voice, Konoha hadn't forgotten about my teacher's crimes.

I let out a small sigh. "Me? Leader? I wish. Guren-sama there," I nudged my head towards a smirking Guren, "is our leader."

The small moment of distraction when she turned her head was all I needed. She fell to the ground, dead, her once-pretty face now pockmarked with holes left behind from my metal shards.

The other three immediately diverted their attention to me, a big mistake because crystal pillars erupted from the ground, instantly killing two of them and impaling the third in his thigh.

"Now then." I squatted in front of him, recalling the metal shards back into my ring, which caused a trail of the woman's blood to run down my finger. "I have a few questions of my own."

He whimpered.

"I assume the assassination went without a hitch?" Orochimaru asked.

We were alone. Orochimaru wanted only me to deliver mission reports, saying that the others craved his attention too much and it was annoying.

"The target is dead, Sensei," I replied with a nod.

"And the Sound Four? Did they learn much from their little field trip?"

"I sure hope so, considering the fact that we had to eliminate a squad of Konoha Chunin."

His eyes flickered with something unidentifiable. "Oh? Do elaborate."

"They were on a mission to steal something from the same noble, sensei. They followed me when I left and happened to hear Kidomaru mention your name. They confronted us and we had to kill them afterwards."

"Tsk," Orochimaru clicked his tongue. "How careless. Of both of you."

I averted his eyes. It was partly my fault. I hadn't realized I had been tailed until it was too late.

"And? How did it feel?" he asked. "They were once your former comrades, remember?"

"And yours too, Sensei," I reminded him.

"Ah yes," he said. "And if you recall, I did perform dozens of experiments on them."

I tossed to him a four scrolls, which he caught without a problem. "Two of them are in good enough shape that they might be of use to you. The other two...I suppose you can use them to feed Manda in the future."

"How thoughtful of you, Kagura-kun," Orochimaru said, a smirk building up on his face. "And here I thought you had a soft spot for Konoha-nin."

I kept quiet.

Just a few of them.

If it wasn't going to be an enemy ninja that offed him, then it was sure to be lung disease, Hiruzen surmised, refilling his pipe with tobacco. He ignored Tsunade's subsequent tic of disapproval.

Take the hat, he'd told her countless times, and I'll quit smoking.

And yet she was still sitting on the wrong end of the table, so Hiruzen lit it up without any kind of hesitation.

"It's been a year," he said solemnly after taking particularly long puff.

Tsunade broke eye contact.

Jiraiya looked to the ground.

Kushina stared at him with fiery determination, flanked by Itachi and Kakashi, both in their ANBU uniform.

Uchiha Fugaku coughed into his hand. "I've personally supervised the guard around the Naka Shrine. The intruder has not returned since."

Information from Kushina that the perpetrator behind the Kyuubi attack possessed the Sharingan had been troubling to them all. After an extremely detailed interrogation by Inoichi and himself, Hiruzen had ruled out any existing members of the Uchiha Clan. They were now still in the midst of gathering a list of unaccounted clansmen, but Hiruzen knew that the search was far from over.

"Kakashi, did your team find anything yesterday?"

"Another one of Orochimaru's hideouts, on the border between Grass and Fire country. It looked abandoned, just like the one before. I'm guessing that he relocates every three months or so."

A troubling guess, and with so many hideouts, Hiruzen wondered just how long Orochimaru had been planning his defection. "Did you find anything?" he asked.

The silver-haired ANBU captain hesitated for a moment, then nodded his head. Then he pulled out something from his vest, gingerly putting it on his hand before showing everyone else.

A lone flower petal. It was shriveled up, but everybody understood its significance as clear as day. Orochimaru wasn't one to keep flowers in his home, but the same couldn't be said for all his subordinates.

"There's still tiny remnants of chakra in it," Itachi said softly, her Sharingan blazing to life from behind the mask.

"So he's still alive," Jiraiya said neutrally.

Hiruzen noticed Kushina fists clench the hem of her dress. "We have to find him," she all but commanded. "We can still save him."

Nobody said anything after that, even Kakashi, who had unconsciously placed his hand over his abdomen with a small wince.

"He's a traitor," Fugaku said after an uncomfortable silence. "He killed his own comrades."

"He's a child!" Kushina's reaction was as instinctive as it was defensive. "You should have never given him to Orochimaru!"

Hiruzen took another long drag of his pipe. "If I had known that I'd misjudged my former student's character so inaccurately, I would have never done that." He paused. "Then again, I would have done a lot of other things differently. But the fact of the matter is that Karatachi Kagura was seen to have killed at least one ANBU member and injured another."

Kakashi's sharp intake of breath went largely ignored, except by Itachi, whose slight twitch did not go unnoticed by him.

This time Kushina had no response, choosing to look away instead.

"And Orochimaru's seal on Anko?" he asked, trying to change the topic. Karatachi Kagura was a troublesome problem even he didn't know how to approach. "Have you three made any progress on it?"

In unison, both his remaining students and Kushina shook their heads, and Hiruzen felt dismayed that his only potential good news of the day had been denied.

"The seal I placed on the Cursed Seal completely locks it," Tsunade explained. "But it also means that we can't study its mechanism without releasing it."

"But that would result in the Curse continuing to spread over Anko-chan's body," Jiraiya continued. "She already has permanent damage to her chakra system, and we don't want to risk it any further. We also can't come up with another counter-seal because well, all we've got on its details are Tsunade's memories of it, which aren't enough."

"Until we actually get Orochimaru's notes on it..." Kushina said, trailing off. "We've hit a dead-end."

"Is it really that complicated?" Hiruzen asked. His own Fuinjutsu skills were nothing to scoff at, but with the village still recovering from the Kyuubi attack and Orochimaru's betrayal, he simply hadn't the time to take a look at Anko's seal.

Kushina nodded. "It's a tangled mess of useless and contradictory components. Something like a dead knot. Something Orochimaru created without giving any consideration to anything other than its function. Without knowing all the details we might end up killing Anko ourselves. It clearly wasn't a finished product."

"So she'll have to learn to live with it for now," Hiruzen concluded.

At seeing their nods, he sighed. He supposed Anko was a lucky one. Most of Orochimaru's test subjects didn't get the chance to live at all.

"Well then." Hiruzen stood up, signifying the end of the meeting. "I guess there is nothing left to discuss. Kakashi and Itachi, continue to take turns between leading the Hunter-nins and being Kushina's bodyguard. Jiraiya, you may return to the field and start building up your contacts in Kusa and Ame to locate Orochimaru. Fugaku, I expect the list of unaccounted Uchihas to be on my desk by the end of the week."

"Yes, Hokage-sama!" they chorused.

"You may leave."

"Hokage-sama?"

He looked up. Only Kushina remained, with Itachi standing behind her like the good bodyguard she was.

"Can I keep the petal?" her gaze turned to the crumpled flower petal Kakashi had found that was still on his table.

He hesitated. He didn't want to keep Kushina's hopes up, but paused when he took another good look at her. Sleepless nights. Lack of appetite. Mood swings. The only thing holding her together was Naruto. Itachi's recent reports had been troubling.

"Take it," he said. The woman had suffered enough as it was.

As Hiruzen sunk into his seat and watched them leave, there was only one thought in his mind as the door closed.

The sight of Itachi pushing Kushina on her wheelchair still burned in his mind.

When did things all go so wrong?

"Mama!"

It was a little odd how Naruto could detect Kushina's return even before she did, considering how Mikoto was technically still a Jounin. The little blond ball of energy squirmed in her arms, grabbing the air uselessly as he struggled to reach the front door which was yet to open.

Finally, Mikoto heard the sound of a wheelchair being pushed, along with the sounds of Itachi's footsteps. A moment later, the door creaked open.

"Welcome back, Kushina. Naruto's missed you."

She placed the toddler on the ground, who excitedly crawled towards Kushina, standing up and tugging on her knees before Kushina carried him and placed him on her lap.

It was getting dark, but there was still enough light to see the reflection of Kushina's tear stains on her cheeks.

"Bad news?" she asked in concern.

Kushina nodded. "He's still out there, tagging along with that monster."

Mikoto watched her daughter push Kushina up the recently-added ramp next to where she was seated in the living room.

"I still don't understand what happened. If only I hadn't been in a coma, I would have been able to stop him!" The redhead slammed her fists into her lap, and the bubbly baby still on her suddenly became very quiet. "Just what did Kagura see in Orochimaru? What could he offer that I, or the whole of Konoha, couldn't have?" The tear stains became fresh again, and the sheer amount of hurt Kushina conveyed through her words made even Mikoto wince.

"Power."

Mikoto hated how Itachi's voice still seemed to quiver whenever Kagura was brought up. Until now she still couldn't tell which her daughter regretted more; Kagura's defection, or her inability to stop it.

For a while the room went quiet. Young Naruto looked around, and sensing the atmosphere of the room drop by several degrees, began to whimper. Immediately, Kushina enveloped him in a hug, rubbing his tousled hair as she did so. "We could have taught him to be strong too..." she murmured.

"Not as strong as Orochimaru could," Mikoto whispered. It was an unsaid truth, one that everyone knew. No one but Orochimaru could have drawn out the full potential of Karatachi Kagura. It was their personalities and their intellect, almost exactly the same. Anyone who had met them both would have said that Kagura resembled a young Orochimaru. He was the perfect teacher for Kagura.

Too perfect.

Their simultaneous defections proved that.

"But strength isn't everything!" Kushina cried out. "I thought the village had managed to teach him that..." Her voice dropped to a low whisper. "I thought I'd managed to teach him that."

Itachi took off her mask, and Mikoto's heart twinged at the sight of her daughter's completely expressionless face. She was too young for ANBU.

"Sometimes I wonder, did we ever really know the real him?" she wondered out loud. Mikoto stared, slightly shocked, at her daughter. "I mean, he was from Kiri the whole time, right? Was he just looking for an escape route from the very start? Did he just pretend to be one of us so he could live?"

The chakra chain slammed into the ground before Mikoto even had time to react, and she wondered just when she would next see such a blatant look of disbelief on her daughter's face.

"Don't ever think like that again!" Kushina was beyond emotional now. "All those memories you had with Kagura, were they real to you?"

Dumbly, Itachi nodded.

"Then that's all that matters. Don't make up reasons to hate him. The Karatachi Kagura you remember and you knew is the only Karatachi Kagura you need to know!"

"But we're Shinobi," Itachi said gravely. "Deception is part of the job."

Mikoto kept quiet. She knew Kagura of course, but not as well as these two did. This was something she should stay out of.

"It's part of our jobs. But it shouldn't be a part of our lives!" Kushina clenched her fists. "Behind that mask of a ninja, do you know who Karatachi Kagura is?"

Itachi was speechless.

"He's a lonely boy. Thrust into war, left for dead by his brother, abandoned by his village. He's human, Itachi, and that's the part of him we have to believe in. Because if we don't, then nobody else will!"

Kushina was panting now; the outburst had taken a lot out of her. Even until now, Mikoto didn't understand why Kushina felt so strongly towards Kagura. What did she see in the boy that no one else did?

Slowly, Itachi's features returned to form her normal, stoic expression. She nodded slowly. "Thank you, Kushina-san. For believing in Kagura."

The smile her redheaded friend gave in return looked almost painful. "I don't have a choice, yeah. Otherwise I'd end up hating everyone I love."

Mikoto found it a little odd how Kushina hugged Naruto as she said it.

"Anko, maybe we should take a break?" Kurenai suggested, almost pleadingly.

She balled fists tightly. "I can't," she said, trying not to let her exhaustion show. "I need to keep training. I have to keep getting stronger."

"Anko...they're not coming back. It's been a whole year already. They've made their choice."

"Then I'll kick their asses until they change their minds."

"Anko..."

"If you're not going to help me, just go home! I'm fine on my own!"

When Kurenai didn't reply, Anko let out a huff. The other Chunin was starting to get on her nerves anyway. Who was she to talk about Sensei and Kagura anyway? Kurenai had never actually met them! Anko readied another kunai in her hand. The target board was littered with dozens of them already.

The sound of someone sitting down on the grass stopped her.

"I thought I told you to go home," she ground out.

"Yeah, but real friends don't abandon each other."

She lowered her arm.

"Yeah. I guess they don't. Thanks, Kurenai-chan."

That was why she wasn't ever going to give up.

Just as she put on her mask, there was a knock on her door.

It was Izumi, and Itachi still found it strange that there was now a forehead protector bearing Konoha's symbol where there wasn't just weeks prior.

"You're going on a mission?"

Itachi nodded. A Chunin squad had gone missing in Kusa, but that wasn't something she was allowed to tell her friend.

"You'll keep looking, right? I mean, you haven't given up on him yet, have you?" Izumi said worriedly.

Itachi hesitated for a moment. Then she raised her wrist, displaying the bracelet with a lone Sharingan Tomoe dangling off the chain. An identical bracelet adorned Izumi's own arm.

"I'll find him. I promise. It takes three to make the set, after all."

And according to Kakashi, the last of the three was somewhere around Kusa.

'Humans are replaceable.'

A necklace with a beautiful gemstone the color of the sea.

'All you have to do is find another one with a similar set of traits and qualities.'

A sleek and elegant hairpin, one hiding a deadly blade within.

'Bonds and relationships are overrated. You can always make new ones.'

Those were some of the first things Orochimaru had said to me ever since we defected.

So far he had yet to be wrong. I had found myself aching during the first few weeks out of Konoha, and the novel feeling of being homesick had gotten in the way of my training. But months later, the constant pain had subsided to become the occasional memory accompanied by a wince. It helped that I'd been kept busy. Between training and helping Orochimaru with a few missions, I'd also been given the task of assisting in training of the first generation of Otogakure Shinobi. The Sound Four looked promising, and Guren and Kimimaro were progressing at a decent pace, though it would be a while before anyone would be an actual challenge to me. Still though, their presences in my life certainly did dull the forlornness I'd felt whenever I thought about Konoha.

Every day, I thought a little less about Kushina, and concern if she ever woke up gradually dissipated.

As my peers improved, my desire to train with Anko or Itachi again weakened and pride at being responsible for their progress took its place.

As Otogakure grew and developed, Konoha slowly vanished into the back of my mind as the concerns of a budding ninja village took priority over my longing for my former home.

It was only a matter of time, I supposed. I'd gotten over Kiri fairly quickly, so Konoha shouldn't be out of question either. Every time we changed bases, I found myself leaving a few previous possessions behind to be incinerated. Old clothes, trinkets, equipment. Remnants of my old life were slowly replaced with my new ones, though my birthday presents from them had yet to receive such treatment.

Souvenirs weren't such a bad thing, and if whatever feelings I still retained ever hindered me in the field, emotional severance was always an option.

"We are beginning a new phase of your training. The mastery you have over your existing techniques is more than adequate already. It is time we begin working on something new." The ex-Sannin seemed excited when I walked into his room.

Training under Orochimaru was fast-paced and comprehensive. I hadn't even used chakra in the first six months. Stealth. Observation. Physical conditioning. Countless other skills and knowledge.

'Knowing how to kill someone isn't going to be useful when your mission is infiltration or data gathering. Before you learn to run, you must first learn to walk. Shinobi are not defined by chakra, but instead by their adaptability.'

The most annoying thing was that he had barely covered any of this when we were in Konoha, but I realized that it was simply because there was little application for it when I was constantly cooped up within village walls. Now that I was on the run from the law and actually doing missions, the importance of such skills, I realized, couldn't be more overstated.

But finally, we were moving on. There were a whole host of things I was eager to begin learning.

Summoning.

More of my Jinchuuriki powers.

Sealing.

Other chakra natures.

Orochimaru pulled out a scroll, and I could feel my heart begin to race.

When he unfurled it across the table between us, there was a moment of confusion on my part.

"A Shogi board?" I asked.

He nodded. "You trained with the Naras, correct?"

"Yes," I replied, still not really understanding.

"Good. Play with me."

My confusion had yet to subside, even as Orochimaru starting setting up the pieces on the board.

"This is good tea by the way," he remarked, his head tilting towards the cup I had placed earlier. "Did you make it yourself?"

"No, it was a souvenir from the last mission," I said, still trying to wrap my mind around the concept of practicing Shogi, of all things, with Orochimaru

"Hmmm...Could you get more?" he asked.

I shrugged. "I suppose I always could."

A/N: Kagura is on the way to reaching 1000 Followers and Favs, help make that dream a reality by clicking the Follow and Favorite button! And as always, do leave a review on your way out!

~Paulzies