ii.

Chapter Thirty-Six: Bitter Wings; Brother of my Brother

Sun Tzu says,

"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."

"Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak."

Sasuke came to a silent halt before the grimy prison cell, and he felt a shiver slide down his spine in anticipation. There she was, crouched in the center of her small confines. Her cloak and hood swathed around her, and Sasuke couldn't help but think that she was much smaller than he had expected.

To think that this child was acquainted with that man.

He scoffed at Orochimaru's attempt to keep such a thing hidden from him. This girl had come from that group of murderers- if the rumors were true. For what reason they had her, or why even the sannin wanted her- he had no idea. And frankly he didn't really care.

All he cared about was information. The information he was sure this little girl would have. It had been a long, long time since he had heard anything about that man, and he was heaving with desperation internally over it. Frustrated and angry, he spent all his time training and getting stronger; but Sasuke wasn't a man known for his patience.

He would stop at nothing until his family was avenged. He would stoop to using even little girls to get what he wanted. He would torture her to get the information if need be. He didn't care. Nothing outweighed his crushing, overwhelming desire to see that man dead.

She rose to stand before him, a small pitiful height. Her black cloak so much like the one that man wore; only lacking the red clouds- swirled around her feet, it's deep hood shadowing her features.

Sasuke didn't know why she'd been brought here, but he felt a flash of pity for her fate. Orochimaru was not a merciful man. At least- he wouldn't have been, if Sasuke hadn't gotten here first.

It had been luck for him to stumble upon a conversation of who had arrived, as late at night as it was. The sannin's weaker experiments had gathered, catching his attention as they discussed in low tones the preparations they had been ordered to make.

Some fairly unpleasant things, apparently.

As soon as the name 'Akatsuki' had slipped he knew he needed to see for himself.

He heard the soft ring of a bell as she took a confident, unfaltering step towards him, towards the thick iron bars that separated them. Her confident body language surprised him.

She hadn't even been here an hour yet. Perhaps she wasn't fully aware of the position she was in? Was she not afraid? Captured and in the clutches of a psychopathic scientist who wanted to cut her sternum open while she was still awake and alive- Sasuke had seen Orochimaru do some heinous things to children before.

He had expected a crying, pathetic whimpering mass; like all the other children when they were brought here against their will. Maybe she was just stupid.

He thought this creature before him must be just as insane as his brother- just as corrupted as the people within that group, and it struck him then how much she seemed like one of them.

Her body language, a languid, careless sort of relaxed state. Like a snake weaving back and forth right before it strikes. Even her cloak lended to the image.

A child Akatsuki.

Something similar to trepidation itched the nape of his neck, but he shook it off.

"Sasuke." He felt another shiver slide down his spine at the sound of his name in her childish, and yet seemingly uncaring voice. As if she couldn't be bothered to be afraid of where she was. Like she felt nothing more complicated than simple boredom.

His flash of unease was quickly replaced by white hot anger, and he clenched his fists at his side. How did she know his name? Did that man speak of his little brother to this insignificant little twit?

Something crawled around in the back of his mind as he watched her glide closer on light feet, little fingers painted black peaking out from voluminous sleeves at her sides.

She behaved as if she was just… waiting patiently. As if there was no real danger.

There was something indescribably wrong with this little girl, and it irritated him that he couldn't quite put his finger on what.

"Your seal… he's placed a part of himself inside you." She murmured, and she reached up to pull down her hood. The fabric pooled around her shoulders, and Sasuke found himself surprised at how… normal she looked.

Her light brown wavy hair fell just above her shoulders, with slightly tanned skin and almond shaped doe brown eyes. Braids swung from behind her ear, adorned with raven feathers and a single silver bell.

If he had seen her on the street, he would have thought her a normal looking little girl. Maybe just a lost genin on the small side, or perhaps an early graduate.

And yet...

Sasuke had spent a lot of time with the sannin, and he knew the look of a feral animal in a human's eyes when he saw it. This girl was a wild, uncontrollable thing that would shred skin from bone without a second thought.

Sasuke knew a monster when he saw one. It was in the eyes.

She lifted her arm slowly, a casual gesture that had him so tense he thought he might shatter.

She's in a cell, in Orochimaru's territory, he reminded himself. She's just a child with genin level chakra reserves. There's absolutely nothing she could possibly do to harm him. She wasn't even leaking any killing intent; he doubted she even could.

These thoughts didn't help as he watched little painted fingers flick towards him, like she was flinging water. His instincts screamed at him to move, but his pride told him to stay put.

Harmless, just a child. She didn't even have any weapons on her, and she certainly couldn't combat his family doujutsu.

Chakra strings uncoiled from her fingertips and lashed out at him lightning quick, and Sasuke would have laughed then if he was the type to show that kind of thing outwardly. Was she aiming at him? With chakra strings?

What a pointless weapon, he thought as it breezed past his cheek. He hadn't even moved, and she couldn't even hit him with them from that distance? He felt foolish for ever feeling wary of this child.

"I am the worst opponent you could possibly have, Bitter Wings."

His arrogant humor evaporated in an instant.

It was like a door had been slammed shut between his waking mind and the world around him, and he drowned in too many sensations too quickly for him to comprehend what was suddenly taking place.

His curse seal burned with foreign chakra, her's- he realized as it scrawled it's inky black waves across his face. How could she possibly have activated his seal? She hadn't even touched him, barely even moved.

"Hm." She made a small sound as she watched his seal activate from inside her cell, and Sasuke screamed at his body to move.

Nothing happened. He didn't so much as twitch as her flat, apathetic eyes held his.

Eyes like his brothers.

Thoughts that were not his blazed across his mind, feelings that didn't belong to him arrested his consciousness and he felt as if he was sinking deep underwater, drowning in the will that had captured his seal, and through it- him.

She felt in ways he hadn't expected a monster to feel. She pitied him, and he felt the love and devotion for his brother and many others echo through him. It was a long forgotten emotion that dredged up similar feelings within himself he'd once had as a child. Sasuke thought distantly that he should feel sickened by this, but he didn't; there was only her in his mind now.

His consciousness swam through thick emotions and who he was sunk low beneath who she was. His anger, his hate a far off distant cry he could barely even remember.

He needed to leave this place, he felt more than thought. He worried for them, they would be coming soon, and Sasuke didn't want anyone to get hurt.

It was as if he was in a waking dream. As if he were inside a locked room watching the world turn from a window. Cut off, and separated from his body. Her will, and potent feelings so cloying and prominent in his mind that he fell slack, the urge to resist having not even occurred to him from inside the place she had moved him to; swathed in love and worry with a tinge of desperation.

"Time to go, brother of my brother." She whispered into the space between them.

Something about what she said alarmed him, that should… he should…

Something… maybe…

What...?

His arm reached around behind his back without him telling it to, and he acknowledged this distantly; unable to bring himself to care. His fingers curled around the hilt of his sword that perpetually rested at his waist.

He unsheathed it, the ring of steel jarring against stone walls, eyes glazing as her chakra gained a stronger foothold on the seal that entangled his body and chakra coils so entirely.

Yes… he wanted… he needed to return to his… loved ones…

He had to… take her there. Yes, yes.

It was time to go home now.

Lightning natured chakra fed down the length of his blade, and as he swung it towards the bars of her cell, his conscious mind entangled fully with hers; no longer able to separate her wants from his.

He didn't even think he had any wants anymore. There was only her.

It felt… good…

To love, instead of hate. It was… relieving.

-Less than an hour prior-

Being dragged around by chakra was not the most pleasant thing Nanami had ever experienced, but it was nowhere near as awful as Tobi's kamui. So at least she didn't find herself vomiting when the world around her became still once more.

Nanami's bare toes touched against cold, grimy stone and chakra fizzled out around her until it was gone completely. Her cloak swirled around her, bits of dust and rock pushed away at her arrival.

She hadn't meant to touch the thing really. But she had never seen nature chakra take the form of a human before, and well, it had fascinated her. After she'd had the realization that it wasn't really a ghost of course. She felt a little silly for riling herself up over thinking the place had been haunted.

Of course it was a jutsu. Of course.

Nanami took in her surroundings carefully. She was in a small stone room that smelled strongly of blood, urine, and dirty hay. It was not a pleasant thing. A pile of disgusting straw lay in a corner, makeshift bedding of some kind she assumed. It was the source of most of the smell here.

Gross.

There were three solid stone walls, slightly damp with moisture and growing black moss across their surfaces like a slick filmy blanket.

The last wall wasn't so much a wall as it was a stretch of vertical bars that separated her from the hallway beyond. The hall sported a row of many torches that lit the area up brightly. They flickered gently.

A cell then, she was in a cell.

"Interesting." She murmured to no one, and she gave herself a moment to calm her rapidly beating heart.

She could handle this, panic or crying wouldn't help her.

Nanami knew who she was; and her Red Clouds believed in her, so she would too. (Sometimes her child's logic was a great boon.) All their efforts to make something out of her would not go to shit at the first sign of trouble.

She refused to break, their time was precious to her she wouldn't waste what they had given her.

Someone was either very stupid to try to kidnap her; the Child of the Akatsuki (Directly from two of its members known for being ridiculously overpowered even) or arrogant enough to think they could outsmart her Red Clouds, and believe her helpless enough that she couldn't fight back.

Perhaps both.

She stood there calmly with her thoughts, as if this was exactly where she had meant to be. She made herself believe it.

Nanami stretched out her senses to find herself surrounded by the strangest chakra signatures she had ever felt, and she anchored herself to the task at hand; a clean and clear distraction from the panic she buried deep.

All of them were human- sortof, but all of them were also… not.

One excessively large signature was approaching, and Nanami's eyes narrowed as she considered the way it felt.

What… was that… what was it that was so off about it?

Soft footsteps reached her ears, and Nanami pulled her hood back up from where it had fallen. She wasn't as good at hiding her expressions as Raven Eyes was, and she didn't want to give away the shiver of unease crawling down her spine.

She pushed it away firmly; compartmentalizing it into the back of her mind to deal with later.

She eyed the bars in front of her, her mind working through possible options and discarding others. She didn't plan on staying here for very long.

A tall, lithe figure stepped before her, his shadow cast forward by the torches along the wall behind him. It wavered on the ground, stopping just before her feet.

He had utterly pale skin, flashing golden eyes and pin straight black hair.

Orochimaru of the sannin.

And oh.

Oh, his chakra.

Nanami couldn't stop her hysterical giggle from escaping at the feeling of it, at the sight of it.

For all that this man was an incredibly intelligent human.

He had clearly gone to some extreme lengths to graph animal chakra into his.

And all the signatures made more sense at this realization. His experiments, he'd taken people and made them into strange human animal amalgamations. Others even still, reeked of both nature chakra and animal chakra, twisting and twining together around their human energy. Some she barely even recognized as human at all.

She giggled harder, bringing up two voluminous sleeves in front of her face, even though he couldn't see her features, to hide the smile. Maybe it was a habitual gesture.

Orochimaru had brought a viper into his den of mice.

And for once, even though a part of the dangerous man was so very much a snake- he was definitely not the animal in this analogy.

"What's so funny, pet?" He hissed in a humored, pleasant kind of way.

The sound of it as deadly as she was sure he was. She felt the surprise flicker through his human chakra. Apparently, he hadn't been expecting her laugher. His surprise was quickly followed by disappointment.

Well, no one had ever said she was sane. Maybe she was spending too much time with Hidan, (Aa, Hidan, how she loved him.) or maybe she'd always been off her rocker.

She suspected it was the latter.

She gave a mocking, shallow bow at the waist. "Orochimaru, it's nice to meet you." She tittered out her greeting politely.

His golden eyes narrowed dangerously, before his thin lips parted in a sickly sweet smile that was completely at odds with the look in his eyes.

"Welcome, little girl." He returned softly. "To your new home, at least… for now. We'll be moving along shortly- before your little friends can come looking for you." He trailed off with a fake, thoughtful look before he turned his piercing golden eyes on her again.

"I see your emotional stability might not be as rational as I had thought." He said this more to himself, and the words seemed to deepen his disappointment.

"No matter." He continued, eyes sharpening on her. "I'm sure your interesting abilities will help to further my research, isn't that exciting for you little child?" He said this as if he expected it would frighten her.

Nanami tampered down on a louder giggle as she eyed his ambient swirling chakra.

His intimidation was completely pointless.

She could reach out with a chakra string right now and take over half of who he was, his animal half. She had no idea what would happen to him when she did, but she was sure it would be unpleasant for him. But she didn't, because she was sure it would be unpleasant for her a well.

"Quite the animal, aren't you Orochimaru." She whispered back to him between clenched teeth that barely held back her hysterical laughter.

Her voice warbled with her humor anyways, and she was sure her eyes would glow in the torch light if he was able to see them.

"Hou…" He made a sound of interest at her words. His grin got a little sharper, a little more outwardly menacing.

"I think I'm going to enjoy this." He said pleasantly as he turned away, soft footsteps carrying him down the corridor where she couldn't see.

Nanami watched him go until he was beyond the wall of her little cell. Just because she could effect his chakra still didn't make it the wisest idea. Some of the tension his presence had brought uncoiled in her belly.

He could kill her without a single thought in less than a split second, and she wouldn't take that risk unless there was no other options left at all.

So she waited for a while, biding her time to see what would happen. She was completely surrounded by these warped chakra signatures, and she was confident she could use her kekkei genkai to effect any of them.

She imagined that Raven Eyes and Oceans were heaving put upon sighs right now as they trudged after her. She knew they would never leave her behind, and it certainly helped that she was apparently at the base they were headed for anyways.

She frowned then, a sliver of something that felt unsure tangling through her thoughts.

Nanami knew Orochimaru was smarter than this.

There was no way he would bring her here without some sort of plan to either delay- or in a much less likely instance; kill or injure her brothers. Her eyes narrowed as she recalled the frustration the artist duo had returned home with when they had been sent for the irreplaceable Akatsuki ring.

The human, who was also (literally) a snake probably had some kind of trap set up for them.

But obviously, he wasn't aware of what she was capable of, or he would have never approached her to begin with. He would never have put himself close enough for her to touch his chakra.

Unless he really was just that arrogant.

Which she supposed could be possible…

She shook her head to clear those thoughts. There was nothing she could do about Oceans and Raven Eyes right this instant, she needed to focus on getting out of this piss stained cell first, and then the underground base after that.

She ran through her mental checklist of what she might be able to pull out to bend or break the bars that separated her from the hallway, and subsequently came up with nothing.

She might be able to augment her muscles enough to strong arm her way out, but she was worried it would take too much chakra. The bars were pretty thick, she realized as she eyed them.

Nanami crossed her arms and folded herself down onto the ground.

There were all the available signatures ambling about, but one of them would have to come to her before she could attempt to take over their nature or animal chakra parts.

She huffed out loud, a soft exhale of breath, and then immediately regretted it after she inhaled the scent of rotting bodily fluids and blood afterwards.

She wrinkled her nose. This was seriously some disgusting ass shit- didn't the sannin know anything about cleanliness? You'd think a guy so hell bent on obtaining information through medical means would want to keep his subjects clean.

If she ever got the opportunity to say something without the fear of having her head chopped off, she promised herself she would chew him out for his slovenly prison cells.

The sensation of a particularly strong nature chakra signature caught her attention, someone was approaching, muffling footsteps with human chakra in a well practiced cat foot.

Well, maybe she'd be leaving soon enough then.

But getting out of this cell would only be step one.

AN: Beta: Still looking!

Honestly, i'm not really sure how I feel about this chapter, but here it is and once again I feel like I can only rewrite something so many times before I have to quit fucking with it. No Itachi or Kisame POV yet, but I promise i'm not ignoring them.

What did you guys think? Please let me know- and thank you for reading!

Next Chapter: Linked (Consequences) or: Emotional Backlash