Previously

Following the directions Jugo had given her, 21 reached the hole in the wall and, without hesitation, jumped through, landing on the warm rock outside. A strong breeze ruffling her feathers and blowing sand into her eyes. But she didn't care.

"I'm… I'm free"

She had lost track of how long she stood there. Was it just a few minutes, or hours? Who knew? All the girl could focus on was the sun. the beautiful, bright, warm sun. its warm glow having been long forgotten by her skin, eyes dilating in an attempt to adjust. Eventually she had brought her wing up to try and block out some of the harsh light. It didn't help much, but it did bring her attention to one thing.

"I have no idea where I am… fuck". Cursing and mentally slapping herself, 21 contemplated what to do next. She could go back inside the hideout and ask Suigetsu? Turning around to once again face the hole she had escaped from, 21's face darkened. 'there is no way in hell I am ever going back into that hell hole' a low growl rumbled from her throat before she realised. "I guess I could just wait out here… but who knows how long they'll be in there for? Or if they'll even leave this way… wait, is there even another exit? AAAAAHHHH why does everything have to be so confusing?!" she yelled, pressing the palms of her hands to her eyes in an attempt to calm herself down.

It wasn't working well.

Removing hands from her eyes, 21's attention turned towards her wings. She had never seen them in the sunlight before, and though many of the feathers were ruffled and covered and dirt, they still shone in the sun's rays. Slowly, she begun to stretch them out, watching as all the feathers moved and ruffled into place. Once they were about half-way stretched out, they subconsciously stopped moving. The girl's feline eyes squinted in confusion for a moment, before it hit her. She'd never had the room to fully spread her wings out before.

Taking a small breath in, she steadied her nerves, which were all over the place for some reason, and slowly began forcing her wings to stretch out to their full width. She winced a little and they were stiff and sore from years of never being used, yet once they were finally out, she was once again staring in awe. They reached at least twice her own arm length, and the way the feathers seamed to catch the wind as it blew past, it was mesmerising to say the least. It filled her with a sense of happiness, something the newly-freed girl hadn't felt in a very long time. It made her feel like she could do anything! Even maybe… a sneaky smirk crossed her face, also the first in a long time, and she scanned the area for the easiest way onto the roof of the semi-underground hideout. Thankfully, some of the rubble from the hole she exited from created a fairly large sized platform that made it simple to jump and grab onto the side of the roof.

Struggling for a moment to heave herself and her extra, rather heavy, limbs onto the hot and sandy roof. But once up there, she felt rather proud of herself. Steading herself onto the edge of the roof, she gave a few test flaps of her wings. The sudden movement of the air around her made the sand fly up in her face, and directly into her eye. Yelping in surprise, 21 brought her hands up and began rubbing at her eyes, trying to relieve the pain in any way possible. Stumbling around a bit she began to lose her footing, until one foot suddenly found the edge of the roof, and she found herself falling.

"Oh shit". Oh shit indeed. Not a moment later 21 found herself face first in the sand, back where she started. 'maybe I should leave the flying practice for a later time…'. Steading herself back onto her feet and dusting the sand off of herself and from the folds of the rags that were once called clothes, she prayed no one had seen her plunge into the earth. 'not like there's many people out in the middle of the desert anyway. Except the other escaped prisoners. Wherever they went.'

Walking back over to the wall next to the hole, she sighed and slid down into a sitting position, feathers ruffling and tail curling around her feet as she did so. Resigning herself to wait for the shinobi inside to leave. Pulling dirty knees to her chest and resting her head upon them, 21 had a feeling she'd be waiting for a while.

Scene changes. Inside the hideout

"so, what do you think Orochimaru was planning to do with that girl?" the shark of the group asked. The question had been on his mind ever since he had first seen the dirty, mutated girl trapped behind a wall full of seals. "I mean think about it, I wasn't lying when I said I've never seen him go so far with an experiment. And the fact that she didn't even have a curse mark to trigger it? It just all to weird for him to simply abandon the girl all of a sudden, and do you really think all those seals were necessary? Was he really that afraid-"

"Oh my god Suigetsu would you please shut up?!" Karin suddenly yelled, effectively cutting the mans ranting. "I'm glad you're using your brain for once, but could you please keep it to yourself?! The girls gone already, what happens to her now doesn't affect us now." The hot-headed girl turned around with a huff, silently wondering if she looked cool in the stoic man's eyes just a few steps ahead of her. A quick look confirmed that he hadn't even spared the pair a single glance during the brief confrontation. the realisation of this made Karin's shoulders drop, silently sulking as they continued their way through the hideout. She wasn't even really sure what it was they were looking for, only that Sasuke seemed to deem it important, so she didn't ask any questions.

Meanwhile, a few more steps behind the red head, Suigetsu was asking himself question after question about the mysterious girl they had rescued just a few minutes prior. He just couldn't get her image out of his head. The way her clothes seemed to have once been far to small, but now ripped and stretched as much as they could go so that they now almost looked baggy. The dirt that had obviously been there so long it had become part of the fabric, and so caked on her skin it seemed as though it was simply a second layer. Messy, brown hair, so tangled and matted it would have to be completely chopped off if there was to be any attempt to save even the slightest bit, and not to mention the wings, ears and tail that clearly should have been white, but now looked grey from never been cleaned. It just… didn't sit right with him. None of it did. I mean, sure, he was used to seeing all kinds of things from Orochimaru's experiments. But this? This was just too far. He could feel the slight respect he once had for the sannin slowly slither and fade away.

Pun totally not intended.

As if sensing the shark man's dilemma, Sasuke slightly tilted his head to the side, just enough to see Suigetsu in the corner of his eye from where he led the make-shift team of missing nin. The smallest of sighs could be heard from him as he turned his head back and begun addressing the clearly distressed man for what seamed like the first time during this whole thing.

"Suigetsu" he stopped walking

Everyone in the group seamed to jump ever so slightly as the raven-haired teens sudden stop surprised the group.

"Uhh, yea?" 'ooohh boy what did I do this time'. "what can I do for ya boss". In classical Suigetsu style, he tried joking his way out of whatever trouble he managed to find himself in. Whatever it was, if Sasuke was addressing him directly, it couldn't be good.

Right?

"go"

Suigetsu's face dropped in confusion. "uh, go where boss?" 'why does he always have to say a single word and expect me to understand everything. We all know I'm the dumb one of the group!'

Noticing this, Sasuke thankfully decided to elaborate.

"the girl, Suigetsu. Go help her." With that said, he continued walking.

The group, to say the least, was shocked. Extremely shocked. Shark man most of all.

'Am I really that easy to read?' he only had a moment to dwell on the thought before Sasuke's words finally sunk in. 'hold up, did he say-'"Are you for real Sasuke?" he didn't receive a verbal response, but the fact that he simply continued walking, not pausing his stride in the slightest, was all the conformation he needed. Eyes lighting up like stars, Suigetsu shouted out his thanks before turning round and dashing towards the whole in the wall he knew the girl had left through. He only prayed she was still there…

"Are you sure that was a good idea?" Jugo, the tallest of the group, finally decided to speak up. He knew better than to interrupt the man who had managed to kill the snake sannin, but he couldn't help voice his concerns now Suigetsu had left in search of the girl. "I may not know much about the girl but I know, whatever power she possessed, it caused Orochimaru to seal her away before she could even come to fully recognise it." Worry and dread was clearly evident in the man's eyes as he remembered the day Orochimaru had first informed him about his intentions on sealing the girl away, and how it had been his sole responsibility to ensure she never escaped. Well, I guess you can't really keep a promise to a dead man in the end.

"Hn, he'll be back soon. I get the feeling we'll run into her again fairly soon" with that, they continued on their way. Honestly, how they still hadn't reached their desired destination confused Jugo and Karin a bit, but they didn't dare question where Sasuke was leading them, so they quietly followed behind, walking down the ever-increasing hallway.

AAAAHHHHH I'm so sorry this took so long! I was honestly planning on making this chapter quite a bit longer, but I'm in the middle of major writer's block and I really don't want to delay this any more than I already have.

Also just wanted to give a major thank you to everyone who has followed, favourited and reviewed on this story! It truly means so, so much to me and honestly is the main reason I'm even managing to keep up with actually writing it all out. It's been in my head for so long it's kinda hard to officially type it out lol