Chapter THREE

"Kill it."

No-

"Kill it, that is an order."

No, no-

"Kill it."

No, because she was not a murderer, she-

"I will give you until I count down from five,"

Her hands were shaking and the thing before her, small and also shaking, was screaming-

"Five,"

She didn't want to. She knew what pain felt like, and she wouldn't wish it on anyone else-

"Four,"

But if she didn't, he would hurt her, hurt them, just like he had yesterday, and the day before, and every single day before that-

"Three,"

And she didn't want to hurt anymore-

"Two,"

Her body surged with power, the power to protect them in the only way she knew-

"One,"

She wondered why, despite the coldness of her actions, the blood of the consequences were warm to touch-

"Good job."

With each drop of crimson spilled, she was protecting them.

They decided that Sasori, in his current state, would be safer with the team than if he and Deidara were to try and make their way back out of the base. Fortunately, there really was not a lot of resistance from Orochimaru's side. Most of the men they came across were all unskilled, their expertise lying in the research side of things, and the guards they did come across were nothing against Itachi and Kisame. The Uchiha cast illusions over them as they swept past, keeping them under until reinforcements came to take them in.

Soon, Konan's paper slowed their rapid movement, alerting them that the current floor was clear and that there was one last floor to check before they could deem the hideout safe. Deidara supported Sasori as they continued their slow trek through the dark corridors. They stopped at the foot of the stairs that led to the lowest floor of the hideout. Even from here, he could already tell that there was something different, wrong, with their final destination.

Sasori narrowed his eyes and he flexed his fingers, knowing that there was a possibility that they would be attacked, not only by Orochimaru's men lying in wait but also from experiments who had long lost their human conscious and sanity. He had come across plenty over the years, first when they had entered Orochimaru's office in the orphanages years ago to find the Snake long gone. They were not necessarily strong, but there were often many in a group. They also appeared to feel close to no pain and continued to attack even when missing whole limbs.

He cursed under his breath as his wounds continued to throb. He ignored Deidara's worried glance, though, as they descended.

The bottom of the stairs immediately opened up into a wide corridor, with cages on either side. The metal bars appeared very secure, and while many of the creatures within them reached out towards them with hooked hands and let out guttural cries as they passed, none of them appeared to be able to get out.

This floor was definitely where Orochimaru kept the most dangerous of his experiments.

Finally, they reached the end of the hallway where a single, securely bolted door sat before them. Itachi made quick work of the door, which turned out was not as hard to open as it had first appeared, and cautiously opened the door and stepped through, Kisame a step behind him.

Sasori then heard a sharp intake of breath from Itachi and frowned. For something to have brought a verbal reaction from the Uchiha, it had to be big. Deidara shifted his weight on his shoulder before they followed the pair into the dimly lit room.

He froze. If Deidara hadn't been holding him up, he was sure he would have collapsed.

Before them, on the floor of what could only be called a dungeon, sat a young, pink haired girl. Her face was covered by her hair but even from a distance, he could tell that her entire body was limp. Her head was hanging and did not move even when their footsteps made sounds against the stone floor. Thick black lines marked her pale skin.

"She looks much more pleasant than anything else we've encountered in this hellhole," Kisame said softly. "You think she's Orochimaru's?"

"Is she dead?" Deidara asked.

Her wrists were chained up to the ceiling and Sasori could see the knife pinning her hands together against the stone wall. Something bubbled within him, and Sasori felt his own hands throbbing like a painful reminder.

He was knocked out of his stupor when Itachi rushed forward. "She is bleeding," he said, and Sasori realized with a start that the dark pool surrounding her was indeed blood. The whole area was filled with the stench of blood and death that he hadn't given it a second thought.

Kisame hurried to his partner's side. "Is she alive?"

Itachi nodded, hands flying to the girl's hands. "She is."

Kisame pulled out a roll of bandages from their first aid kit. Its contents were nowhere near good enough to take care of the girl's injuries, but it would have to do until someone with more knowledge in the area arrived or they got her to someplace proper equipped to help her.

Itachi gently eased the knives out from her hands and instantly began trying to stop the blood flow. Sasori simply watched, feeling the pain in his hands instantly dying away.

No.

Kisame inspected the chains holding the girl up, then drew his sword. Itachi nodded, and the older man swung his weapon, slicing the metal in half. The Uchiha gently caught the girl, who showed no signs of waking, and gently turned her around to reveal a back full of fresh, bleeding injuries.

Deidara winced. "Explains all the blood," he said. "The black lines are probably chakra mutation."

No.

Itachi tore the girl's ruined clothes from her thin frame and cleaned the wounds the best he could in their current situation before he pulled out an extra cloak and covered her with it. Kisame propped his sword over his shoulder, ready to protect them, and the Uchiha rose to his feet with the pinkette in his arms.

No, no no nonononono.

"I think we've got everything we need from here," Kisame said. "Should we head back up?"

Itachi nodded. "She needs medical attention," he added.

His wounds no longer hurt, and when he glanced at his hands they had scarred over like injuries from weeks ago. "Deidara?" He called softly.

The blond, who had been preparing to support him on their trip back towards the stairs, turned towards him. "Hm? You okay Danna? Do you want to rest or something?"

Itachi and Kisame both stopped to glance back at them as well.

Sasori slowly shook his head. "I-"

His throat felt dry and his voice sounded as though he had not used it in years. He swallowed, wincing at the dry feeling in his throat, and tried again.

"I think that girl is my Soulmate."

The four of them confirmed the arrival of the rest of their men. Itachi directed the leaders of the rest of the groups to sections of the base and gave them rundowns of what could be found where before they retreated back to the village where Konan and Zetsu were waiting.

It was not even questioned when the Uchiha continued to carry the unconscious pink haired girl back with them, and while they received curious looks from many of their subordinates, no one asked any questions.

Throughout the entire ordeal, Sasori was quiet. The scars on his hands no longer hurt, and there was nothing that suggested they had hurt in the first place. The girl, his soulmate, lying in Itachi's arms gave no indication of hurting either, though that may have had something to do with the fact that she was no longer chained up in Orochimaru's dungeons.

Besides, if he wasn't hurting, she shouldn't be hurting. That was one of the things their bond told them after all.

Every once in a while he found his eyes drifting over towards the unconscious pinkette, because was she supposed to be so thin? Sasori knew, having experienced them himself, that the injuries the girl had received over the years were not anything to laugh about, and his was a momentary pain in comparison. From the way she had endured it all, he had thought that she would be taller, maybe, and stronger looking, not this….this pink haired doll-like creature with hands half the size of his own and a waist so think he could probably wrap his hands around it.

At some point, Deidara released him to move on his own but Sasori barely noticed. His pain was long gone, but he was sure the stab wounds on the girl's hands were still hurting.

When they arrived, Konan did not appear awfully surprised to see the girl and Sasori guessed that Zetsu had already informed her of the extra person with them, though it was likely neither of them knew who exactly she was. Sasori was glad no one asked any questions for now.

The woman simply ordered Itachi to set up a few illusions around one of the spare rooms they had available and put the girl there for the time being; Kakuzu and Hidan were finished off their own job and were going to join them later that day and the former could patch her up then.

Kakuzu, who was the same age as Kisame at twenty-three, was one of the people Sasori talked the least to. They were on friendly terms, but both of them liked silence over conversation and they tended to sit in the same room reading or working rather than talking. He and Hidan were known as the 'Zombie pair' because of the way both of them were technically unkillable due to their chakra natures. Kakuzu had five different natural chakra storages within his body to the average person's one. While it was possible to manually store chakra in a part of the body, which was a difficult, delicate and time-consuming process in its own right, being born with more than one was a very rare case. These five storages all worked together whenever Kakuzu was injured to stitch the wound back together much faster than a normal person could.

Hidan, the other half of the Zombi pair, was a case of near immortality Sasori could not quite explain. Unlike Kakuzu, who brought himself together to stay alive, Hidan's chakra appeared to be able to seal wounds and injuries with amazing accuracy and speed, allowing each decapitated part to stay alive without the aid of the heart or the brain or a very long time until someone stitched him back together again. Sasori had been present during one of those operations, and he was frankly okay with not knowing how it worked because it had been very disturbing to watch. Not to mention the silverette was loud. He stayed away from Hidan if he could help it.

The two of them arrived at the village a few hours later. Sasori did not say a word to them about the situation, and the rest of them present seemed to take that as a sign that they should stay silent as well. Sasori simply wanted to be left with his thoughts, and while Kakuzu was capable of giving him the silence he wanted he was sure Hidan was not.

Kakuzu did not question anything when Konan pointed out the room the girl was being kept in. Despite that, Hidan asked enough questions to drive Sasori up the wall of insanity. Deidara seemed to catch onto his annoyance, for he loudly called Hidan annoying, effectively cutting off the older man. Hidan paused for a split second, glancing over at Sasori as though he finally realized how he was not confirming Deidara's claims like he usually would, before he glared at the blond and rained a barrage of insults onto him, questions supposedly forgotten.

Soon, Kakuzu exited from the girl's temporary room. "I've stitched up her wounds," he said. "Though I actually think she would have been fine either way."

"What do you mean, un?" Deidara asked.

Kakuzu shrugged and plopped himself down on an open chair. "It might be the results of Orochimaru's experiments, or maybe it's her chakra nature, but it appears her body seems to have natural healing powers."

That thought fills Sasori with a sense of relief because if she healed fast she probably didn't feel the pain for long, didn't hurt-

But wait, why did he care?

He felt Deidara's eyes on him again and forced himself to clear his face of emotions.

"Who is she anyway?" Hidan asked, a little quieter than earlier. Konan glanced over at Itachi, then at Sasori, probably expecting the more responsible of the team to explain. The Uchiha glanced over at him too, and soon Sasori could tell everyone was looking at him.

"She-" Sasori hesitated, "we found her in Orochimaru's base, and I think...I believe she is my soulmate."

Silence met his revelation before Hidan exploded. "WHAT?"

Konan was a lot more composed. "Why do you say so?"

Sasori held up his hands, where the knife marks had scarred over. "For one, I got these during the operation. The pain tends to fade after the initial burst unless the injury is continuously stimulated being wounded. That usually never happens with us, but these continued to hurt long after. We found the girl chained up, with her hands pinned up with a knife. That explains why my marks continued to hurt, and also explains why they scarred over moments after Itachi pulled out the knife." He thought over his next words before he continued. "Also, all the injuries and pain will be explained if she were one of Orochimaru's….pets. She was bleeding her life out when we found her; who knows what she was put through?" He hesitated with his final reason, simply because he had never been one to rely on superstitions. "That, and I have a feeling."

"You feel that she is your soulmate?" Hidan asked in disbelief.

Sasori scowled. "Yes."

Hidan went uncharacteristically quiet at his strong reply and Sasori resisted the urge to sigh, because how was he supposed to explain a gut feeling he himself didn't even understand?

Konan seemed to consider his words for a while before she nodded. "Okay. I think your reasons are valid," she began. "It will be beneficial to confirm at a later date, but I think it is reasonable to assume that you two do share the soulmate bond."

Sasori felt himself relax.

"The girl will be brought back to base," Konan continued. "Of course we will have to keep an eye on her, seeing as she appears to have been one of Orochimaru's experiments, but from what you have told me it looks as though she was not a willing follower. I'm sure we can find something on the files we recovered from the Northern hideout."

They were then dismissed for the night. Sasori raided the food storage before he retreated to his room, mind spinning and all the long gone scars he remembered tingling.

Later that day Sasori found himself sitting on a chair next to the girl's bed, the one Kakuzu had probably used during the healing process. Return back to the Akatsuki headquarters had been set to the following morning, leaving them with the night to rest up. He had felt he would not be able to sleep at all, though, with everything that had happened, and Itachi had quietly suggested he go sit with the girl for a while and sort out his thoughts.

The girl looked much better than when he had first seen her. The blood had been cleaned up and all the grime and dirt had been scrubbed off of her body. The black markings on her skin had vanished and Sasori wondered if it was a part of some chakra related ability. She still looked skinny and frail but considering her past residence that was reasonable.

All in all, she did not look like someone who had suffered from heavy injuries over the years.

Sasori thought back to Kakuzu's words as he made himself comfortable.

Perhaps her regeneration abilities had led to Orochimaru's interest in her? If she healed fast, that meant more experiments could be conducted. Sasori then thought back to his promise of retaliation and inwardly winced.

This girl had been suffering in one of the worst possible places, at the hands of Orochimaru. Her wrist looked like it would snap if he so much as gripped it tightly, and a dark part of his mind reminded him that it would probably heal just as fast.

He glanced up at the girl's face. Since he had entered she hadn't so much as fluttered an eyelash, though the soft sounds of her breathing and the steady rise and fall of her chest clearly indicated that she was alive. He wondered what color her eyes were.

"You made my life a mess," he told her. "I'd start hurting out of the blue, at the most random times, and I had no way to stop it." He glanced at the girl's hands, where scars identical to his own marred her skin. "Though if you were with the snake I guess you didn't have much of a choice either."

He slowly reached out and ran a finger over the pale skin of her arm. If he dug his nails into her flesh, he would feel the pain as well. He would never be able to harm his Soulmate without suffering the same consequences. No matter what, there was someone out there who understood one's pain and suffering. He wondered if that was the twisted sort of relationship that drew people into the whole concept.

He felt something twitch beneath his fingers and slowly looked up to see the greenest pair of eyes he had ever seen. It took him a second to gauge that the girl was awake. It took him another to notice she was slowly reaching for him.

It took him one more to realize the snap that was his wrist breaking under the girl's dainty fingers and that she was bolting for the door

Or that was what she told her self, again and again, just like she had yesterday, and the day before, and every single day before that, as, with each murder, she killed a little of herself.

At least until one day, there was nothing left to kill.

So...update~

Darque: I'm sad because I was trying to play DST and I kept lagging.

Raven: It's a sign that you should stop playing games.

Darque: It was winter and I was stuck near a fire for so many days.

Raven: Are you even listening?

Darque: Sigh, maybe next time.

Raven:...

Darque: (Thank you for the cookies)

Read and Review~