A/N: Our favorite little rapist is back!
The Return of Sai
With my head feeling as though it were filled with snot, and the trobbing pain the only reminder of last night, I sat in an oddly comfortable bed. It was oddly comfortable because it wasn't even a bed, it was more like a cot. Some wireframing with a sad excuse for a matress flung on top, wrapped in sheets and garnished with a blanket. From the view of the window next to my bed, it seemd as though I had slept through the entire day. And I felt strangely light...
I looked down to find the monkey sculpture gone. Had Deidara? Was I dead? No, if I was dead, my head wouldn't hurt this much. It felt like I had a serious hangover...not that I would know what that felt like. I froze when I heard footsteps on the rock floor and turned to find a man I recognized with malevolence and disgust.
"I removed that bomb from your chest," he explained. "It seems you had a running with Deidara."
"Sai!" I spat, my lip curling viciously. "What have you done with me? Where have you brought me?!"
"I brought you to my room at a motel," he answered calmly despite the overwhelming amount of murderous aura I was emitting. This was the man who had raped me-no, Sarafu. "I have done nothing to you. Believe me, I am as surprised to see you as you are me. Well, you might be more surprised. Frankly, I don't know what caused you to have such a reaction from seeing me. You don't seem to be poisoned or have any jutsu on affect..."
"No, I just remembered," I muttered disgracefully. Although it had not been my memories, at least some accomplishment was made, although images of that dreaded scene kept replaying in my head. Was this what Sarafu had locked deep with my brain?
Now that Deidara no longer has any way to kill us, let's return to Gaara! He can contact Tsunade and she might be able to find a way to unlock your memories.
'You said that I merely had to ill them back, remember? Besides, I want to return to Tobi, and there is no way in hell I'm going to pass up this chance to avenge you!'
So...you remember?
'Not my side of the story, but yours. Even then, I still want to get back at this guy. He is suh a...such a...'
...prick?
'Worse. There's just not a bad enough word to describe him!'
"How'd you escape jail?" I glared at him.
"A man named Kabuto rescued me. He also released some other prisoners, under the condition that we follow him. He claims to have Orochimaru in his body, although I always suspected that from the beginning."
Father?
"O-Orochimaru?" My dangerous leer left for the shock to replace it. "But...he's dead. Sasuke told me that he killed Dad himself!"
"Apparantly, he had been experimenting on this Kabuto guy."
"Anyone involved with Orochimaru is bound to become another one of his experiments," I growled. I hated this guy just so much as Sai. 'He's probably crazy enough to even experiment on himself.'
"Which brings me to the reason I'm in Suna, although you could rest assure that I'd be killed on sight," Sai continued in his apathetic manner, pulling back the hood from the black cloak he wore. "Kabuto is having difficulty restraining Orochimaru's spirit within his body. Since you and Sarafu coexist on a parallel plane, my master wishes to know how to ascertain this symbiotic relationship as well. At this rate, Orochimaru will completely take over his body. You, of all people, must not want this to happen, right?"
I frowned. "So what do you plan on doing with me then?"
"I plan on taking you to Master Kabuto, so that he may study your psychological manner and run some tests."
"In other words," I gripped my pillow tightly, "you plan on running experiments on me!"
"Some of it will be experimental, yes," Sai nodded, no emotion showing on his face, except cold rejection. "But Master Kabuto merely wishes to observe and figure out how this delicate balance is upheld. He would not be so foolish as to do something that might endanger your pyschological manner."
"My 'psychological manner' is already f'ed up enough as it is!" I snorted heavily and rolled my eyes. "I don't think I'll be of much use."
"What do you mean?"
"When I was writhing in pain at the sight of your face, it was because you had unlocked Sarafu's memories that had been sealed along with mine. However, only her side of the story was returned, so I'm practically Sarafu right now."
Sai put his finger to his chin in deep thought. "We'll let Master Kabuto decide if you are unworthy of his observation. I was simply ordered to bring you to him, willingly or not. If he sees that you are useless as you are now, he just might release you. Until then," he gave a dark look. "You'll just have to come with me."
"And if I refuse?" I lowered my hand to where my chakram were, and then, only realized that I had left them at the apartment, unable to grab them before Deidara kidnapped me. I was weaponless.
"Whether you go with me willingly or not doesn't matter," Sai replied, cracking his knuckles to emphasize his meaning. "You'll be going either way."
I don't really see how we can escape. While we're traveling, we'll look for the right moment and make our get away!
'But aren't you curious? Don't you want to see what's become of your father. You were so furious when you heard he'd died.'
I was only furious that I hadn't killed him myself! Otherwise, I hold no other feelings towards that man!
Even if Sarafu was going to deny it, I wouldn't. "Well, I'm not going to make a fuss." I got up out of the bed and straightened my clothes.
Sai held out his hand, and without hesitation, I took it as he lead me to the darkness.
I wasn't exactly sure the location of Kabuto's hideout. The only thing I saw on the way there were numerous trees. When we arrived at a small cavern opening I was beginning to have doubts about my decision to go quietly. I never liked caverns. You never knew what was inside and sometimes they could be lake a maze with all the tunnel work that went on down there, and worst of all, you never saw sunlight.
Sai turned to look at me staring apprehinsively at the cavern opening. "It's in here," he stated the obvious.
"No duh, Sherlock!" I snapped. That little bit of sarcasm helped to regain my composure and I made my way into the cavern. "Lead the way. I have no idea where we're going."
Sai nodded curtly and walked on ahead of me. I followed silently looking at the last rays of sunlight.
I was correct about the underground being a labyrinth. We turned left and right so many times, I lost sight of north or south, and I was pretty dang sure we were going in circles. Sai, however, lead the way confidently, not stopping to look down any of the paths. He just kept walking, and I just kept following.
After what felt like hours, he stopped in front of a rock door and knocked lightly. Without waiting for permissionm he turned the knob and swung the door aside. I was pushed into a moderately sized room, cramped with shelves of instruments and worktables. A white haired man in pale purple clothes gazed at me from behid wire-rimmed glasses. He would've appeared harmless if it wasn't for the right half of his face was covered in white scales and his left eye was a golden color with a single black slash running through the middle and what I thought to be purple eye shadow gone bad.
Misa...can I...?
'Yeah, sure. This is all about you, anyway.'
I could feel myself slipping out of my body, to become a wispy spirit. It still felt odd to watch myself from the outside. To see my hael brown eyes morph into a sharp gold. I payed less attention to myself and more to the weirdo smiling at us.
"Thank you, Sai, you may go now," the white haired four-eyes said over Sarafu's shoulder.
Sai bowed his head before closing he door behind him. His footsteps faded into the silence. Sarafu didn't look behind her to watch Sai leave. She never took her eyes off of that single serpentine eye. Her face was squished into a frown.
"So you've overrun Kabuto already?" she interrogated him.
"No," the white-haired man replied with a sly smirk. "I have control when he's sleeping. Living in a cave really messes up your hours."
"Then did you send for us?"
"No, Kabuto did," he sighed. "I have no intention of keeping a harmonious balance. He merely wants to use my power for his own will. No, I just happened to be lucky enough that he fell asleep just before you got here."
"So, what do you want then?" Sarafu put her hands on her hip to give her an agitated look. "You don't want some heart-to-heart talk, right? If you're just going to talk about how you'll destroy the world and go off on some evil monologue, I'm gonna leave."
"Such a disrespectful tone to your father," he snorted. "No matter. I can do nothing in this state. It's quiet tiring, you know. I'm awake most of the time. No rest. But don't worry. As soon as I get my own body, however, I won't stop to continue my 'research' on your dragon lineage."
"Too bad," she shrugged her shoulders. "If you haven't noticed, there's nothing dragon about me, as of late. Stupid lizard ran off with my body. It doesn't plan on coming back for another century or so."
"Ah, but there's no way it can ignore what Akatsuki has cooked up," Orochimaru smiled. "It would be foolish to ignore such a substantial amount of food, especially considering with all the deaths, the population might drop. Their war they are trying to concoct is beneficial to everyone. It's just a matter of who gets their hands on the prize first."
"Beneficial? BENEFICIAL?!" She slammed her fist on the table next to them, causing a few flasks to tip over. "How can you call thousands of people dying BENEFICIAL? Towns will be reduced to rubble, families will beseperated, hatred will rise. This is not beneficial!"
"I beg to differ," Orochimaru smiled. "One country just might be able to come out on top, and rule all of the lands. Old grudges can be settled, one can satisfy their bloodlust. A country can take whatever they want. There are no rules in war. Everything is up for grabs and only the strongest and most tactical will win. It's all a game, you see."
Sarafu looked like she just might wring his neck right then and there. I had to agree with her though. This guy was giving off strange waves. He was more of a freak than they were.
Sarafu took a one of the glass flasks and broke it against the table's edge. "I should kill you here and now," she growled, holding the dangerously sharp edge to his neck. "Who cares if Kabuto dies, as long as you go with him? Though, knowing you, you'll find some way to survive. You're like a stinking cockroach."
Orochimaru only smiled, his teeth glistening in the artificial light. "I plan to live for eternity."
Sarafu's anger seemed to be axhausted. She flung the broken flask over her shoulder and it shattered into a million pieces on the wall. "Whatever. I'm sure there are plenty of other people who'll be more satisfied with killing you. I'm outta here."
Come on, Misa. There' no point in lingering here.
'Ah, yes, but-'
"Remember, Sarafu," Orochimaru rested his head on his hand. "I will find a new body, and once I do, I will harvest the Moon Dragon's power, no matter who's body it's in."
"Tch." Sarafu appeared to have ignored his threat and walked out of the room.
I fused back into my body, and regained control as we were outside the room. 'Umm..Sarafu?'
Yeah, what is it?
'How do we get back?'
Don't worry, you're boyfriend has come to pick us up.
'Boyfriend Wha-You don't mean Tobi?!'
Who else?
I couldn't keep myself from blushing. He wasn't my boyfriend, why would Sarafu say something like that. I barely knew the guy, well, actually, I knew the guy. But there was notihng going on between us, I mean-
"Misa?"
I looked up to see the familiar orange mask, coming towards me. I couldn't help but smile.
"Tobi!"
"You sure do know how to get around!" Tobi exclaimed when he came to me. "From our room to Suna, to here!"
"Yeah, well, the story's complicated," I shrugged my shoulders. "How'd you find me anyway?"
"I told you not to leave, because I knew Deidara might try to attack you," Tobi answered as he led me back. "So I placed a tracking charm in your pocket, just for precautions. It seems I was right. I realized what Deidara was trying to do in the middle of my mission. Sorry for the long wait. You're not hurt or anything, are you?"
"Nah, I'm ok, really," I smiled at him, and then cringed when I was blasted with light. As my eyes adjusted, I recognized the outside. How had Tobi known the way?
He sighed and rested his forehead against mine. "I swear, I'll protect you this time. Look, you got a cut on your lip. You may be fine now, but if this were to happen again-no, I won't let it happen again. I'll never let you out of my sight."
I smiled. This guy really did love me. "You're like my own personal guard dog, Tobi. Maybe I should call you Doggy, from onw on!" I smiled thinking it a joke, but Tobi had a painful expression on his face.
