A/N:

Scarease

Thank you. I'm not in need of any more OCs just now, and if that changes I'll make them up as I go, but thanks for the offer anyway.

forgetfulFollower

Well, I hadn't actually planned to do anything more with that team than give Chikako and Sai a warning that things were going to get worse, but then I read your comment and had an idea so ... there you go.

Guest

Thank you. Sai is indeed an awesome friend (which surprised me a little, considering that he wasn't supposed to be anything more than a person Chikako could relate to).

Episoph

Sai isn't really the reckless type, but then they likely won't run into Orochimaru again for a while yet so ... maybe?

lilith-thetiny-monster

Me too. I mean a have an outline of where I want them to go and what I want them to do, but things rarely work out the way I plan them so we'll see.

. . .

VI - An Unexpected Discovery

The next morning was rather quiet, which was bad because Chikako had a hard time not falling asleep again with nothing to occupy her mind. Having only two people to keep watch meant neither of them got a lot of sleep, and it was certainly taking it's toll.

Jiro didn't have the necessary skills to help out because while he was stealthy himself, he wouldn't notice anyone sneaking past him either, and Sai couldn't spare the chakra to constantly keep up a perimeter with his ink beasts. They'd need to take a whole day off from traveling soon to recover, but as it was their progress was already ridiculously slow.

Chikako wished, not for the first time, that the books on sealing were more helpful. Setting up a sealing array that reacted to chakra and functioned like an alarm would be incredibly useful - if only she could figure out how to make it work.

Sai yawned, stretching like a cat. He'd taken to doing that the past two days or so. Apparently not having to bolt upright the second he was awake was quite the luxury. Chikako certainly preferred it when he took his time to get up. Sudden movements tended to make her nervous lately, and her instinctive reaction was to throw pointy things first and ask questions later. Luckily Sai was both fast and prepared for friendly fire. He'd changed her nickname from Weirdo to Scaredy Cat though.

Breakfast consisted mostly of berries and a few nuts. They only ate one real meal in the evenings before going to sleep because there wasn't time for anything else. Chikako would go hunting or fishing, while Jiro searched for mushrooms, eggs or fruits, and Sai prepared a fire.

The boy, it turned out, was a surprisingly good cook, which was nice because Chikako got incredibly bored when preparing food. It wasn't like she couldn't follow a recipe, but more that she tended to rush through the task to get it over with. Sai on the other hand would learn all of the steps by heart and then meticulously follow every single one. He had a really hard time improvising though, which meant Chikako often had to intervene because the middle of nowhere in Sound wasn't exactly where one found a lot of spices, herbs or kitchen utensils. What they ended up with couldn't hold a candle to the dishes served in an Akimichi restaurant, but they certainly wouldn't starve either.

The lack of good food and amenities wasn't the only change their new status as (most likely) nukenin had brought. They'd decided to constantly wear their new masks. It wasn't the most comfortable thing, but worked well enough. They'd also started calling each other Owl and Fox, not mentioning anyone else's names either. It wasn't that they expected to be overheard in the woods, but it was a good habit to get into. They'd be around other people soon enough and the best disguise was useless when they just gave away their names or those of the people they knew.

Some random shinobi wasn't likely to know who Shikamaru or Hinata were, but names like Tsunade Senju or Kakashi Hatake were pretty likely to ring a few bells. in fact, anything that could connect them to Konoha was dangerous, and therefore something to be avoided.

It was a good policy, and hopefully one that would keep them safe, but it also resulted in a lot of silence or cryptic conversations. Chikako wasn't very good with the former, but Jiro and Sai tended not to get the references with the latter. To avoid that problem she started working on a cipher they could use.

They all knew Konoha Standard of course, but that was out for obvious reasons. Chikako could also have taught them the code she used with Ibiki, but that seemed like a breach of trust. That one was supposed to be only for the two of them and she couldn't ask Ibiki for permission at the moment. So instead she invented something new with the input of her two companions.

The whole thing was a lot more complex than any other code she knew because it was meant to allow actual conversations, and not just a quick exchange of information. Coming up with gestures and corresponding symbols to be written down or sequences that could be tapped was a lot of fun though, especially for Jiro who felt rather useless most of the time.

The days were all pretty much the same; eat, travel, eat, sleep. In between there was gathering food, washing in a stream or pond if they could, working on the cipher as they ran, and sometimes they spent some time talking or reading when they settled down for the night.

Today was a little different though. They would likely cross into Hot Water before sunset, which meant avoiding border patrols. Or at least that had been the plan.

They'd been moving a little slower after noon, so Chikako could better concentrate on chakra signatures in the surrounding area. She stopped short in the middle of a nonverbal conversation with Jiro when she felt Naruto's chakra at the very edge of her range. It was just a flicker, flaring up for a second and then gone again just as fast. She couldn't feel him at all afterwards, but by now she knew better than to disregard her senses.

Instead she informed her two companions and headed in the direction of her former teammate. He shouldn't be in Sound. The likelihood that Tsunade had allowed him to go after Sasuke again was rather slim, which didn't leave a whole lot of other reasons for him to be there, none of them good.

It took them almost a full hour to reach what looked like the entrance to an underground structure, which said a lot about the amount of chakra Naruto had to have been using. The blond was still there, but so were Sakura and Jiraiya. Definitely not an official mission then, but maybe not quite unsanctioned either.

If Tsunade had sent them out there would at the very least be a tracker with the team, but more likely she wouldn't have Naruto - and especially Sakura - allowed to go. The blond was strong, but he was also practically hopeless when it came to stealth and infiltration, not to mention that he was too valuable to Konoha to be delivered to the enemy on a silver platter. And Sakura had, as far as Chikako was aware, no noticeable skills whatsoever. According to Sai she was more hindrance than help on any mission above D-rank.

What puzzled her was Jiraiya. He was a Sanin, a sealmaster and acted in some official capacity for Konoha, information gathering most likely considering how much time he spent outside of the village. He'd taken Naruto with him to search for Tsunade, which turned out to be a good call because otherwise Itachi would have gotten her teammate.

Assuming Jiraiya had know of that danger at the time, which was likely because Kakashi had definitely known something before confronting Itachi, he was protecting Naruto. Taking him on a trip to look for an ally was one thing, but she doubted that the sealmaster would take him into Sound. But then Naruto wouldn't have taken no for an answer, would he?

She shook her head and sighed. The idiot had probably decided to go after Sasuke himself and just happened to run into Jiraiya on his way out. Or maybe the Sanin had been watching him. In any case this wasn't an official mission, but Naruto had avoided defection by having the older man with him. Lucky bastard.

Chikako trusted that the Sanin could keep her former teammate safe and stayed out of sight. She couldn't really judge what was going on beneath their feet with nothing but her sense of chakra to go on, but it seemed whatever had happened an hour ago was over now. The group was moving around with someone Chikako didn't recognize and never came close to any of the other chakra signatures.

She'd taken to keep her stealth techniques (except for Camouflage) active at all times since they'd defected. It was good practice, and improved both her concentration and chakra reserves. Sai did the same to a lesser degree. He did fine when it came to masking scent, sound and body heat, but could only suppress his chakra and not completely blend it into the environment because he didn't sense it nearly as well as her (of course neither did anyone else she knew). His control also wasn't good enough for the Camouflage jutsu, but that would have to wait until they had the time to work on it.

When she felt Naruto's group approach the entrance to the underground structure she huddled further into the shadows and signaled for Sai to leave. Chikako felt confident that Jiraiya wouldn't notice her, but she wasn't so sure about him. This was definitely a situation in which better safe than sorry applied.

Not that Sai minded. He didn't exactly have a burning desire to see any of the three Konoha nin, and was in fact quite happy to stay away from Sakura. The two had never really managed to get along and instead usually ignored each other. The girl hadn't been particularly receptive to Sai's attempts at friendship, and he'd stopped trying after the third time Sakura had mostly stood on the sidelines during fights.

There was a rumbling sound before Naruto, followed by the rest of the group, sprinted towards the surface. Behind them a cloud of dust billowed into the air, and the ground caved in, sealing the entrance to the underground structure.

The fourth chakra signature turned out to belong to a girl with long orange hair. She seemed about the same age as Naruto and was clearly distressed. Tears were running down her face in rivers, two clean paths cutting through the dirt and grime that marked the rest of her skin and clothing.

They were all dirty, but looked mostly unharmed. The only exception Naruto who's back was soaked in blood. It looked fresh, still wet, yet none of the liquid dripped to the ground beneath him. Either it wasn't his or the wound had already healed enough to stop the bleeding.

Jiraiya didn't linger. He summoned a big, mint green toad with darker markings on his back, and ordered all of them to climb on. The girl wasn't happy, but Naruto said something to her and she stopped crying.

They left only seconds later, presumably for Konoha, but Chikako waited several minutes before calling Sai back. She informed him of what she'd seen, sensed and theorized. He agreed with her assessment of the situation and then nodded towards the pile of rubble the other group had left in it's wake.

"You want to go in," he said. It should have been a question, but his tone suggested that he was just making the statement for forms sake. Sai often had a hard time understanding her when it came to anything that related to friendships or emotional reasoning, but in other respects he knew her scarily well. Chikako was curious by nature, and doubly so where it concerned her allies and enemies.

She gave him a sheepish grin.

"Getting the rocks out of the way is going to take a while and there are still people alive in there. Hostile I'd wager."

Sai didn't even bother to answer that comment. Instead he walked over to the mess and started to dig. The boy definitely deserved a medal for putting up with her.

. . .

They had to jump out of the way of more falling dirt several times, but after hours and hours of digging (Jiro had helpfully transformed into a shovel) the entrance was clear.

Chikako went in first, Sai at her back, while the tanuki turned back into a bracelet to rest.

The whole place was dark, with surprisingly high ceilings, held up by stone pillars. It seemed like most of the structure was still intact, but clearly not in the best shape. The floors and walls, rough stone and brick, had seen a lot of fighting judging by all the holes, scratches and dark discolorations. Chikako couldn't actually smell blood in the air, but she was willing to bet that Kakashi would have been able to.

Most of the damage didn't look fresh either. This place was old and layered in dust. Orochimaru didn't much care about the comfort of others, but he always kept the places he worked at and the the people he worked on clean and in good health. At least if he expected to need them in the future. The state of this structure suggested that whatever he had done here had lost it's appeal a while ago. Maybe he'd finished the research or given it up as a failed experiment.

"It looks abandoned," Sai said in a low tone that didn't carry. They both knew it wasn't really. She'd told him about the chakra signatures she felt down here. Then there were the still burning candles that lighted up some of the corridors and rooms. Someone had to replace and light them regularly.

Orochimaru had left her and the other children behind back in Konoha. She'd assumed that it was because he had been in a hurry to get away, but maybe he just didn't care enough about his experiments to clean up when he was done with them. At least a few of the rats in this cage had clearly been free to move around though. Why had they stayed?

As they walked they came across a myriad of traps. Most had already snapped shut, likely been triggered by Naruto's group. They were all ridiculously primitive. Chikako and Sai had no trouble at all avoiding the ones that were still active, proving that the blond had no business infiltrating anything and certainly not the hideout of an S-class nukenin.

All of the chakra signatures were in one part of the building, to their right, so they explored what lay to their left first. The corridors were even dirtier than the ones they had come through to enter, and no candles were to be found anywhere. Not even burned down stumps.

There was a lot more blood in this part though; equipment too. It seemed like whoever was still living here liked to stay well away from Orochimaru's research, which was a good thing as far as Chikako was concerned. The world didn't need any more psychopathic madmen with the ability to twist bodies and minds into monsters.

They found laboratories, but they were nothing but burned out husks. It didn't satisfy her curiosity in the least, and she mourned the knowledge that had been lost, no matter how much suffering had been caused to gain it. Chikako hated Orochimaru, and she wanted him dead for what he had done, for what he still did, but there was no denying the fact that he was a genius.

His experiments were horrifying, painful and more often than not cruel. She wouldn't wish that kind of treatment on anyone and she certainly didn't condone it, but that didn't take away from the value of what Orochimaru had learned over the years. The knowledge had been here and destroying it after the fact didn't help anyone, it certainly didn't erase what had been done.

"What a waste," she cursed, clenching her hands into fists.

Sai took a step closer and into her personal space. he didn't touch her, didn't say anything, but the message was clear. She wasn't alone, and even though he likely didn't understand why this place made her both sad and angry, he would stand by her side like he always did.

"Let's check out the other half," she said, turning around and squeezing his hand in thanks. He might not know how to comfort people, but the effort itself was more than enough to lighten her mood. Chikako was grateful for his company, trust and loyalty. He hadn't asked about her past, even now that they were away from the Leaf and he wouldn't have to report to Danzo anymore. She hadn't told him anything of her own volition either, but she would the second they were out of this place. He had more than earned the right to know for whose sake he'd left his village behind.

Sai merely nodded and fell into step as she left the room.

The closer they got to the other chakra signatures the more candles lined the walls, until gloomy turned into bright. It didn't make the corridors look any friendlier though. The opposite really. More light meant it was easier to see where blood had splattered the stone and dried because no one cared enough to clean it up.

A biting smell that was a vile mixture of urine, feces and likely some other bodily fluids greeted them, growing stronger the closer they got to their target. With it came a quiet rattling noise, metal on metal. Chains, Chikako knew. It was a sound she was entirely too familiar with.

The worst part was the whispering though. At first she'd though it was a conversation, after all there were several people ahead of them, but it was only a single voice. Someone was muttering, chaining words together in a way that made no sense whatsoever. Sometimes the sounds weren't even words at all, just syllables in a string without meaning.

They approached cautiously, ready to dodge an attack at a moments notice, but it never came. The room they entered was far, far inside of the structure. Likely a lot further than Naruto had gotten because he would have never left something like this the way they found it.

They'd walked into a dungeon. Not even holding cells or a prison, but an actual dungeon. To her left was a long wall, bare put for the chains that hung from it at equal intervals. Most were empty, but some held rotting corpses. This close the smell was almost overpowering and Chikako had a hard time to keep her meager breakfast down.

To her right were a number of tiny cells, each holding more than one person. They were all alive, but only just by the looks of it. Clad in rags, or nothing at all, severely malnourished , and more often than not with open sores all over their bodies.

The one muttering to himself was an old man and the only one not in a cage. His ankles were chained together, but otherwise he could move around freely.

Naruto had clearly fought someone the day before, so there had to have been more people alive down here, but Chikako was pretty sure they had been in far better condition. Since nobody else had left she'd likely find the corpses in a different part of the massive underground structure, one they hadn't explored yet. There was no way to tell how the groups had been affiliated with one another though, and she wasn't likely to glean any information from the ones left behind.

She tried anyway of course, but all she got for her trouble was silence or gibberish. In the end she decided that the best she could do for these people was to end their suffering.

They didn't even react when she broke the locks of their cells, cutting through the metal with the chakra laced blade of her tanto. Their bodies might be alive, but their eyes were dead. Not even a hint of intelligence or consciousness left in them.

Sai caught on quickly when she started to cut the prisoners' throats. She didn't tell him to help, not wanting to force him to kill when he didn't have to, even if it was an act of mercy. It was silly of her. Of course he assisted anyway, and it wasn't like they hadn't both killed before. Neither of them knew these people. They weren't betraying friends or ruthlessly murdering innocents. They were sparing lost souls a bit of suffering.

It felt different though. Surreal. The minds of these people were gone, probably far enough that they couldn't even feel their bodies anymore. They would have lived a few more days at best; or worst. The only one Chikako was actually conflicted about was the old man with the chained ankles.

He didn't protest what they were doing, in fact all he'd been doing since they had arrived was kneel on the ground and mumble nonsense, but he wasn't half dead either. He was dirty just like the rest of them, his clothes were barely more than disintegrating rags, yet he was clearly eating. His skin wasn't gray, his lips weren't dry and cracked, and there was flesh on his bones.

Was it kinder to kill him too? To spare him from an existence as a mad ghost wandering the halls? Or would he recover in time, without the duty of caring for anyone but himself?

It wasn't her place to make the decision. She didn't know him, had no authority in the matter, yet she stood before him blade in her hands. Unable to strike the killing blow, but just as unable to walk away and leave him to his fate.

Chiako's breath hitched when, after several long minutes, the man stopped mumbling and looked up at her. His eyes were a light blue color, glistening with tears and milky with age. A smile graced his lips, wrinkling the skin of his face even more than it already was. Then he lifted his head up further, baring his neck to her. His hands were clasped in front of him, and as she swung her blade once more Chikako realized that he'd been praying the whole time.

Blood sprayed and the old man fell, body limb now that nothing held it up anymore. Like a puppet whose strings had been cut. She caught him before he hit the ground and then gently lowered him the rest of the way. Her face was wet with tears she didn't quite understand, but they were hidden under her mask so she didn't bother wiping them away.

"Fox," Sai called quietly from the other side of the room. He'd waited for her to be done, but whatever he had found was important. His chakra was churning in a manner that made her uncomfortable.

When she got closer he pointed at one of the men he had killed earlier, and Chikako crouched to get a better look at the corpse. At first she had no idea what he was trying to show her. the man looked just like all the others. Same faded clothes, body in the same condition. Then her eyes widened and she turned to look at her companion.

"Is that ... ?" She asked, not quite willing to voice her suspicion. He nodded anyway and pointed out three others.

It was hard to tell because their eyes were dull, sunken into their skulls and gaunt, but now that she knew what to look for the similarities were undeniably there. These four men looked exactly like the ones that had attacked them only days ago.

"How likely is it that they all had twins that just happen to be here?" Chikako queried.

"Not very," Sai told her, confirming her own thoughts.

Had those men not been ROOT after all? Or even worse, did Orochimaru have a connection to Danzo?

Chikako would like to think that they had just been plants left behind after the failed invasion. Spies maybe. But that was just wishful thinking. It would be an incredible coincidence if Danzo had sent a squad after them that just so happened to be comprised of four people that looked exactly like the men in this dungeon.

"Always wheels within wheels," Chikako muttered. "Why are things never easy and straightforward?"