Poke.

Ouch...

Poke.

That hurts.

Poke. Poke. POKE.

STOP IT!

Her body was completely numb, and yet in pain at the same time. Koumei opened an eye warily, not wanting to know what she would see. She was mildly suprised that her vision was not stained red as she looked around. She was in her bed inside of her old bedroom.

Poke.

She turned her head and saw a young, white-haired boy with glasses doing something to her arm. He said nothing, even after noticing his patient was concious. Poke. Poke. Poke. He finished with a stange pull on the skin of her arm and moved away to her desk. Looking at her arm, she noticed a long row of many small, neat stitches running right over her curse mark. She pulled her arm back and noticed her wings were still out. As she rustled them, preparing to draw them in, she stopped and her blood froze.

There were no soft golden-browns. No feathers. No. Instead she saw black scales. Crimson, dark leathery skin. And to top it off, each wing-joint was tipped with two sharp black talons. What...the...Hell!?

"Do you like them? They are a gift from Orochimaru-sama." She turned as the white-haired boy adressed her, glasses flashing in the low light as he smiled sickly.

"Who the Hell are you!?" she said when she found her voice.

"Kabuto. Orochimaru-sama told me to give you proper wings. I thought this colour suited you perfectly. It matched your oufit at least." He held up her bloodstained red and black outfit, dangling it in front of her. She looked down and noticed she was dressed in a completely black outfit. She didn't want to ask any questions. But she did.

"Orochimaru? What's that serpent got to do with me? I thought the Akatsuki got me, not the Sound-nin." Please don't tell me that.....

"Orochimaru-sama has made a deal with the Akatsuki. He is once again with them,leading them, if only momentarily. Along with another group of missing-nin called the Kirigenshi." The white-haired boy, Kabuto, turned slightly and scribbled something on a clipboard.

This is just great. Now I have to deal with the Akatsuki, Orochimaru, and another group. But...

"Why has Orochimaru suddenly decided to do this? What's he planning now?" Koumei voiced her thoughts, still unsure whether or not she wanted answers.

"Why so many questions? This is not an interview, Toji," he said, using her givin name. She looked up, impressed that he knew the name the scientists had givin her at birth.

"But I suppose I could answer that... I'm suprised you haven't guessed, after the fall of the Rain and the overpowering of the Grass, it's obvious. Orochimaru-sama is trying to eliminate all threats and leave him to rule as he pleases," said Kabuto, not noticing her silence.

"...How did you know my name?"

There was a short pause, before Kabuto let out a short laugh. "Don't you remember? We found the accounts and document scrolls from the experiment. It told us everything about you. You mean you really forgot!?" he began laughing quietly again, turning back to the desk and writing something else down.

"I must report to Orochimaru-sama. He wished to know when you were awake. Don't move," he said mockingly, leaving and shutting her bedroom door softly behind him. She found out why there had been laughter in his voice as he said the last words. Her ankles were chained to her bed. She grunted in frustration, and sat up, surveying her old bedroom.

It was exactly as she had left it, except that now the bars on the windows and on the door had been removed. It had been used as more of a prison than a room. On the walls hung various weapons, swords, blades, knives, and a few specially designed outfits on display for her eyes. On the opposite wall was a large cabinet which she knew was full of potions, bombs, pills, medicines and poisons, along with her hunter-nin equipment.

On the wall to he left was a glass cabinet full of carefully organized items- jewelery, scrolls, her moon headband- sitting on the shelves, some of them gifts used as payment or things she had stolen from enemies. It was her personal collection of whatever. On the very top shelf of the glass cabinet, each one hanging on it's appropriate hook, were the headbands of some of her most talented enemies. Mist, Grass, Waterfall, Sand, Rain, at least one from every village, even one from Konoha, although she had not killed the man, she had collected it from his body.

The door suddenly cracked open a bit, before opening fully. Koumei, or Toji, swallowed hard, fearing what was going to follow. In stepped Orochimaru himself, closely followed by Kabuto and then by a red-haired girl, around Koumei's age, perhaps a bit younger, dressed in Sound-nin robes.

"Welcome home, Toji," said Orochimaru, stopping at the foot of her bed and grinning.

"What do you want, snake," hissed Koumei, staring fearlessly into his odd, slitted eyes.

"I came to introduce you to Kaitahi. She will be your shadow from now on, and will follow you everywhere." He turned, ready to leave, before adding, "and tomorrow, you can meet everybody else." Kabuto followed him out of the room, leaving Koumei and Kaitahi alone.

Koumei glared at Kaitahi, who glared back, before she flopped back down and rolling over to face the dull whitish walls and going to sleep.

The next day, Koumei awoke with the moonlight filtering in on her eyes. In the Hidden Moon, there were many concealing jutsus used to protect it, and one of those was used to make it appear to be night at all times of the day. In reality, it was probably around ten o clock in the morning.

She sat up and noticed Kaitahi was already awake and fiddling with the weapons on the far wall.

"Hey! Don't touch those," said Koumei, making to stand but remembering the chaains around her ankles. "And get these chains off."

"Why the Hell should I listen to you!?' said Kaitahi, spinning around and glaring at her. But she came over anyways and pulled a key from her robes, undoing the shackles and allowing Koumei to get up.

"Orochimaru-sama wants to see you in the Tsukikage's chamber. I'd hurry up if I were you, I don't want to get my ass kicked by him."

Koumei grunted in response, warily rubbing her ankles before standing. Her new wings were still outside of her body, and she held one forward feeling the textures of the leathery skin. She didn't like it at all. Frowning she walked casually over to the wall, preparing to take a katana down from it. Looks like I'll be fighting my way out again.

"Uhh... I wouldn't want to be doing that if I were you..." said Kaitahi, examining her hands casually, turning them over and over.

"No, I really think I do," said Koumei as she lifted a long sword from the wall.

"No, you don't. Think about it, you versus all the sound-nin, a few Grass-nin, all of the Akatsuki, Orochimaru, and the Kirigenshi. You don't stand a chance. Honestly."

Koumei paused momentarily. "You're probably right. But I'm still taking weapons." She tied the sword across her back, along with her old weapons pouch. As an afterthought, she opened the glass cabinet and removed her Moon-nin headband. There was a slash across it, cutting the crescent in half, but it was still a head protector. She tied it bandana-style over her head, letting her loose dark brown hair fall messily over her face and shoulders.

She stretched her new wings to their full length and examined them. They were very narrow, almost elegant, and the dark red leathery skin stretched elastically when she extended them. At the joints in the middle of them, there were two claws on each wing which glinted softly in the moonlight. Muscles rippled across the limbs, and she flexed them slightly before folding her wings in disgust.

Koumei left the room quickly, and headed out down the hall and down some stairs, all the while followed by the red-haired sound nin. When she reached her adoptive father's chambers, she heard no voices at all, but through the door she could see the boy, Kabuto, sitting beside Orochimaru. She opened the door without knocking, and peeked in nervously. She didn't feel very comfortable entering a room full of S-ranked criminals.

"Toji. Sit," Kabuto pointed to a chair beside Orochimaru and she stepped in warily, moving over to the chair, and then moving the chair away from Orochimaru before sitting down.

"Orochimaru-sama is going to introduce you to the members of the Kirigenshi, along with a few of his specially trained Sound-nin. It would do you well to pay attention and remember them for the future," said Kabuto, glasses glinting annoyingly in the low light.

"These will be the ones hunting you, Toji. So remember their strengths and weaknesses. This," Orochimaru gestured towards Kaitahi, " is Kaitahi, whom you will know very well by the end of the week. She is the older sister of one of the Sound Five, Tayuya, and also uses a flute to summon and control monsters."

Orochimaru continued through the list of about twelve Kirigenshi, and two more Sound-nin. The Kirigenshi all wore drab grey clothes, but each wore a red head protector somewhere on them, which stood out against the drab colours. She didn't really pay much attention, but was lost in thought. What does he mean by the ones hunting you? This isn't some kind of game. I need to get back to Konoha. Thats right! I wonder what happened to Kasei? I never saw, that Itachi guy bashed in my face and broke my nose again. I was wondering why there was an annoying bandage across my nose... Sora was unconcious too. But Kasei jumped in front of the needles... I wonder why?

Koumei's thought wandered for awhile, until Orochimaru finished his little meeting and went onto explaining something else. She snapped back to reality.

"You will stay here for a month and a half, as we need to take notes on the effects of our experiments. That's the first part. The second part will consist of sending out the people mentioned out after you to see if they can overpower you in your new state. Hope you enjoy the experience," he said sarcastically, standing and leaving followed by Kabuto and the rest of the ninja. One man, however, stopped and looked over to her for a moment. It was the Tsukikage.

Koumei glared at him as he left, smiling. She was utterly confused at the moment. I have to warn the other Hidden Villages about this... but how am I supposed to get out of this place? I don't get it... What experiment was he talking about? What exactly did he do to my body? ARGH! She stood and stormed back to her room. I'm going back to bed.