Ch.5

Snakes Awakened

Sarutobi woke up and rubbed his eyes, "oh, I must have been rather tired…and I had the strangest dream" he looked over and saw two things that scared him. One…Tokiru was missing from the room and two…so was Orochimaru. Jiraiya and Tsunade were just waking up and sluggishly putting on their outer cloths and mildly noticing what he had. "Jiraiya!" he barked at the boy, for even though the others were taller he was the oldest and would get to his feet a lot quicker. The boy leaped up though only half dressed his eyes were sharp and a kunai was in his hand " uh…" he looked strangely at his teacher and blinked " what is the matter? You scared me there…I thought someone was attacking "

Sarutobi frowned and snipped as Tsunade, also sensing something wrong stood up. "I have a bad feeling about this kids…you "he looked at Jiraiya who was beginning to tie back his hair in a pony tail "I want you to come with me…Tsunade" he glanced at the already packed blonde who as he looked at her seemed to have changed over night "I want you to go search for Tokiru….and hurry "

Tsunade split from them as they ran over the split roof tops of the houses, Jiraiya looked strangely at Sarutobi not knowing exactly where they were going but knowing that something was up.

"Sensei "he whispered as he ran forward catching the chill in the air as Sarutobi must also have caught and shivered "why did you bring me instead of Tsunade?"

This got him a serious glance as they sped up and searched for Orochimaru "because" he grouched "you and little Yondaime trained together so you, though often silly are a best bet for if we run into trouble…Tsunade on the other hand… is good at healing…and I have a feeling that someone will need it."

Tsunade flipped over the roof of a broken house and dropped silently on to the dirt ground and blinked her eyes cold and alert in the mist still burning off as the autumn sun bleached it with warmth. " I sense…something" she murmured and slowly stood up brushing one hand through her blonde hair nervously as she walked down the path she had found which ultimately would lead her to the main entrance where they had come in. She walked for a while keeping to the misty shadows and then stopping suddenly as a huge wave of fear along with a very horrid smell met her in a wall, she shivered and forced herself to walk into the dark gate where she found the bodies of around 6 people…or those that she could tell were people for they were hideously mauled and ripped asunder as rag dolls would be; most of them decapitated, it was revolting and worse…She knew that even though she was the greatest healer in her village, she could not bring them back.

She knelt down beside one who had desperately tried to crawl away from whatever or whoever had attacked them, turned the body over and then moaned in horror as she recognized who it was " Tokiru kun…." She stared at his body for a moment and then clutching her throat ran to the side of the gate and vomited, " the smell " she gasped and shook her head again forcing herself to look among the bodies until she was sure that every one of them was dead…she had even found two dead ninja from the cloud country in the pile…" how sad" she sighed and then scrambling out of the death hole she looked up at the sky with glazed over brown eyes that had seen death way too many times and as her hair masked her face she frowned and balling her fist, slammed it into the right side of the gate wall causing it to crack and then crumble. " Orochimaru…"

Jiraiya ran beside Sarutobi listening to the reasons why he would be best suited to face 'trouble', which as he began to notice had suddenly become a second name for Orochimaru. He squawked as they flitted from house to house looking for the boy "ME fight HIM? As much as id love to and all…NO!"

Sarutobi snarled "I did not say fight your team mate! I know as much as you do right now about this whole thing so until we find him and get either information or his body be good and shut up!"

Jiraiya was happy to comply.

They stopped both out of breath from searching long and they began walking under a copes of dead trees, which as Jiraiya eyed them, must have been well taken care of and beautiful once before, he looked down and also saw dried up vines and empty seed shells strewn upon the ground and sighed " this was a garden once…" Sarutobi glanced down at him for a second and shook his head "amazing that you can think of something like that at a time like this…but this is good Jiraiya…your mind is on something other than fear."

Sarutobi was still standing and keeping a sharp look out for either Orochimaru or the terribly late Tsunade of whom he was beginning to silently worry about.

Jiraiya huffed and scratched his head flopping down a few feet away at the base of a dead tree so he would be able to see either of the two coming from his direction. " Taku…" he sighed and began to go through his weapon pouch, a certain nervous habit he had recently acquired since coming here, He took out a long kunai about 3 inches or so used for either long distance or straight fighting such as you would with a katana. As he looked down at his fuzzy reflection in the metal it was suddenly lost to view as a bright red drop of blood splattered on his knife….His eyes widened and he slowly looked up at the tree and through the curtain of dead leaves that had struggled to stay on their branches and leaped off the ground and skittered back to Sensei as fast as he could silently pointing up at the tree's branches, for hung upon the crown of the dead tree two severed heads, ones with cloud ninja headbands still upon them dangled from the limbs of the twisted tree in hideous tribute.

Sarutobi grimaced and placed one hand upon the shoulder of his shaking student and sighed " Jiraiya…change in mission….this one has changed from C to rank A…find Orochimaru and Tsunade " he growled his eyes as hard as ice " now go…" He split up from Jiraiya and silently knew that the boy could hold his own, after all….he had almost mastered the techniques only the fourth himself knew and at such a young age…all his students had turned out very special…"

He ran forward and as he headed in the direction of the gate he paused for a second to note splotches of blood on walls and the ground, someone had been wounded…. He looked up and noticed a trail, blood, slide, blood, slide, and step.

"Good "he breathed "someone is still alive."

Tsunade didn't want to believe that Orochimaru, no matter how much of a messed up kid he seemed at first could do something like this…he had a conscience. She hoped he did at least. She silently turned and stared at the dusty heap of stone and plaster that had been the gate to the city, now the tomb of Tokiru and some others she didn't know. "But" she wondered as she walked away intent on finding Orochimaru as fast as she could "why had Tokiru been there? And with those people…why" she narrowed her eyes as she sped up to a trot "…had they had weapons upon them? Had they expected a fight? But if so, with whom?

She closed her eyes and stopped stretching her consciousness out to sense any trace of her team mate. As it went everything she looked at appeared white, discolored, strange. She noticed thankfully the green chakra of her sensei and the blue of Jiraiya who for once in her life she would be happy to see and then as she scanned around she was nearly blasted back as she felt a deep purple and black chakra burning some area away from her in the forest surrounding the village, Orochimaru, he was alive.

She opened her eyes and swiveling on her heel she ran as fast as she could towards the direction she had sensed him her mind roaring and twisting in a conflict with her heart "He didn't do it! He did and you know it…He didn't! Keep on denying it Tsunade…you will see" whispered her heart as she so distressed to get to her team mate that she punched trees out of her way and crumbled rocks in her way. She would find out the truth, she had to.

Jiraiya stood in front of the mountain of rubble that Tsunade had created and darkly noted the blood seeping from underneath "Tsunade" he sighed "you must have been frightened…so much blood" he looked up his eyes narrowed "but where did you go?"

Sarutobi peeked into all the houses that stood still and soon the trail of blood ended, he took out a long kunai he had borrowed from Jiraiya and stepping cautiously around the blood soaked ground slid in the cracked entry way, holding up his weapon and quickly accustoming his eyes to the dark.

He started as he noticed a woman crouching in a corner, a shovel held in front of her as some sort of shield, her simple brown dress ripped and splattered with blood, mostly her own he guessed as his gaze rested on her right leg which was rapidly turning black and blue, and he grimaced as he noticed splinters of the bone spiking up through her skin.

He dropped his weapon and went to her slowly as so not to frighten the poor woman who must have only been around 20 and promising that he would not hurt her, ripped the left sleeve from his over shirt and tied it carefully around her leg so it would stop the major blood loss, but he knew that she must bee in excruciating pain…He needed Tsunade for he could only take care of a few injuries…and she though still young was far beyond his level. He comforted the woman who was slowly beginning to fall unconscious and hoped that he could keep her alive long enough for his students to get back.

Tsunade stopped, her knuckles bruised and bloody and gasping lungful after lungful of air she looked forward and there she found under a outcropping of fallen tree's and stones a shallow cave which as she noticed the floor, was speckled with dark blood, she rushed over and ducked in immediately stunned as she met the burning eyes of her team mate, Orochimaru.

Orochimaru looked up at her slowly, having languidly placed himself upon a seat of moss and was silently trying to tie bits of stained cloth around his gashed up arms now washed red instead of pure white and having a time of it as he was doing this with his teeth. Tsunade crept in and knelt down to look at his wounds and got a heated glare from him " I don't need looking at blonde…" he hissed " I'm fine.." she frowned and stood her hands on her hips " do you want scars? You are loosing blood and just look at you!" and without pursuing it further snatched his hands and grunted as blue chakra burned from her hands and spread rapidly over his two arms, the gashes steaming and then closing up with a sound like bacon frying "there" she huffed and turned looking back only to snatch a glimpse of Orochimaru's face, not as surprised as she had hoped…he looked hungry.

As he noticed her looking at him he looked at his arms and flexed them the amber in his eyes growing softer…his mirrors had risen back up, not letting anyone see his inner self, sealing off his soul to the world. Tsunade sat opposite from him and made sure that he had no intention of leaving in his condition seeing as even with healing it still ached enough and then looked at him strangely "Orochimaru…what happened?"

He raised one hand shakily and brushed his tangled black hair from his face and his gold eyes met her brown ones "I awoke " he started " to find that Tokiru had left the hut and so I went to look for him, seeing no reason to wake you for I had noticed you three were tired from the previous day so I went alone and what I found wasn't pleasing" he purred, making Tsunade shiver and remember the pile of bodies including the man they had been ordered to protect under the gate.

"So..." she mumbled with numb lips "what did you find?"

She cursed herself mentally as her heart betrayed her and started to thump loudly, so loud she was quite sure that he could hear it from across the small space. He blinked and then shrugged his thin shoulders "a raid from the other side of the mountain where the other village lies…the ones that ordered my village to be destroyed" he stared at her, daring her to pity him "They had come for Tokiru as well as myself…the last survivor of a 'demon' race, they had hired two ninja from another place to attack us…I simply defended myself" he let a smug look warm his chiseled ice features.

Her heart thumped painfully in her chest and her eyes widened as her words betrayed her and her heart laughed and hissed at her, stealing Orochimaru's voice "I told you sooooo…." She stood up causing Orochimaru to look at her once more with something near remorse "than you…you…killed all those people?" she stammered, her fists clenched until her knuckles went white "you did that?" she murmured, her voice lowering an octave as she looked at him under her curtain of blonde hair, having ripped the ties out of her hair so they wouldn't catch while she searched, her hair now spilling over her shoulders like a sad waterfall as she waited for his answer.

She suddenly started as he too stood up and with another liquid movement that her eyes couldn't yet follow he stepped forward one hand raised, his eyes shadowed.

Jiraiya wondered where Sensei was, but he didn't have time, he still had to find Orochimaru and Tsunade who too had seemingly vanished. He leaped from a rusty lantern top and found himself in the middle of the ghost village where he noticed rested a dusty shrine of some sort, old candles and moth eaten tapestries still hung over the thing, he was curious about it and much wanted to investigate when a scream split the air like a knife " TSUNADE!" He jumped and ran, transferring chakra to the bottom of his feet so he would run twice as fast over any object that got in his way…he had heard Tsunade scream…not your every day occurrence he snarled as noticed smashed trees and crumbled up boulders….a trail of really big bread crumbs, he silently thanked her and sped forward.

Sarutobi opened a flask from his supply pack and wet some of the tattered cloth from his shirt with the water and wet the girls forehead and then tried to mop up the blood that was already welling up from the split skin where the bones had splintered through and he sighed looking out a hole in the wall at the forest beyond for he too had heard the faint scream and silently wished he could help but he had his own mess to deal with…those three…he sighed and brushed back the girls long matted hair from her shoulders and face only to find a large dark bruise rapping around the girls throat.

"Someone tried to strangle you…" he whispered "but that isn't something that would be left by a rope or anything….what is going on here?"

Orochimaru's right arm snaked out and snatched a large spider from her left shoulder which had silently crawled there whilst she was un aware and then frowning he slowly redrew his hand and looked at the spider for a moment before crushing its fat body between his index finger and thumb and looked up at Tsunade who had gone red and was frowning, a storm was brewing. He smiled and wiped his fingers on his pants which started smoking immediately upon contact with his fingers "there are many poisonous insects in these woods Tsunade…you should know that being the great healer you are " he smiled and turned "I'm sure that the others are looking for us right? Let's go."

Tsunade looked at the ground still "you defended yourself? They attacked you?"
Orochimaru shrugged and continued walking "I did." After a few minutes Tsunade followed him, she knew he had done it as sure as the lies had rolled off his long tongue…but she wouldn't tell. She couldn't.

As they walked in complete silence save for the sacred breaths which they breathed in the Luke warm air; many thoughts were exchanged and both of their chakra's swirled around them both believing in the other.

Tsunade was about to say something when she was instantly jumped and bowled over by a demonic looking Jiraiya who was panting like a mad dog, "Tsunade! Are you ok? "He looked over at the slightly annoyed looking Orochimaru and smiled lightly "and you are safe as well….good."

They all caught their breath for a while and Orochimaru told his story along with Tsunade, giving them time enough to rest and then run back to the village of which Sarutobi sensei hadn't yet emerged. Jiraiya stopped when they reached a point in the village where he felt a great rift in chakra and with Tsunade and Orochimaru in tow they walked inside and were met with a grizzly sight.

Orochimaru wrinkled his nose at this, he had indeed killed all those men and women but he had left one alive having assumed her dead in a few seconds…she hadn't attacked him as the others had in blind terror but he had sadly been there, an unfortunate thing. Tsunade was the first to blanch at the scene before her and run to the side of the girl who was scarcely older than herself and placed her hands upon the unconscious girl's leg and then gasped.

She didn't have to long to live and Tsunade knew it, she shivered and looked up at a serious Sarutobi a worried (as always) Jiraiya and then slowly she glanced at Orochimaru who in spite of the horrible scene before him looked cold and emotionless as a marble statue…and yet…she turned from him as her hands glowed with chakra as she tried desperately to save the girl.

She couldn't tell the others that he had done this…ever.