Nayamae ran deeper and deeper into the woods. She felt Kakashi's presence getting fainter as she got further away. She almost felt guilty for leaving them behind, but she trusted Kakashi enough when he said they would take care of the children. Her focus now was to kill Orochimaru. As she continued to run, dodging between trees and scaring small animals, her lungs burned and her side cramped. She decided to take a rest at the edge of a creek, sitting on a fallen log.
As she sat, she thought about what had happened just an hour before. The seal Orochimaru had put on her back to keep her from spilling his secrets was now gone. She wasn't quite ready to test whether or not she could actually say whatever she wanted. The pain in her head wasn't worth the risk. She had also hoped that Kakashi had understood the kiss she had given him was out of gratitude, although she had to admit, she did like his face underneath his mask and certainly didn't mind the kiss either. She shook her head of any fantasies and stared into the creek water.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out the kunai. She then picked up a nearby stick and began shaving the outside of the stick. Keeping her hands steady, she attempted to carve a little fox head in the end of it. When that didn't work, she pocketed the kunai and stood up. After getting a drink from the creek, she continued on her path to Orochimaru's hideout.
It was early morning, shortly after dawn. The sun clearly peeking through the gaps in the trees, lighting her path. Nayamae knew she was getting closer. The rocky hillside it resided in was just in her line of sight. The area was void of any birds or other animals because Orochimaru's snakes would attack and eat them if they got too close. She typically didn't like his snakes anyway and would stomp their heads when she got the chance, but that action always earned her a swift beating and another night recovering in the small closet.
She kept her eyes fixed to the ground, watching for any snakes when suddenly, she was grabbed from behind, a hand quickly covering her mouth before she could cry out in surprise. She mentally berated herself for not sensing this person earlier. She struggled against the person, trying to reach for her kunai and throw them off of her, but a familiar voice whispered in her ear.
"Nayamae, it's me!" Kabuto. She immediately stopped her struggle and he let her go.
"What the hell was that about?!" she half-shouted at him.
"Shh! Keep your voice down!" he whispered harshly. "Orochimaru doesn't know you're coming back yet and-"
"I'm coming back to kill him, Kabuto. Not to let him control me anymore." She tried to move past him, but he stepped in front of her. "Move, Kabuto. I don't want to fight you." He stood nearly a head taller than her, but she knew how to make it seem like she was bigger than him.
"I can't let you do that," he told her, holding a firm hand on her upper arm when she tried to move past him again. "Come, let's talk first."
"There's nothing to talk about. Get your hand off me," she growled. He looked at her, daring her to try moving past him again. He fingered a blade in his pocket. "Kabuto, he's been experimenting on children! How can you be okay with that?" She suddenly realized what she was able to say, half expecting pain to stab through her head.
Kabuto seemed to realize it as well, moving quicker than she could react. The blade he had in his pocket was now stabbed into her side. She gasped, reaching for his hand before he could stab her again. He tried kicking her feet out from beneath her, but she had already jumped away from him. She gripped her side, blood pouring out between her fingers as she tried to apply pressure to her wound. If she could avoid any more injuries, she would have time to heal and not bleed out.
"Bastard," she called him, spitting blood at his feet.
"How did you undo your seal?" he asked, making patterns with his hands. She didn't answer.
Nayamae could feel his chakra pulling water out of the ground. It swirled around his hands as he infused the water with his chakra. Before he could attack her with it, she was already running in the direction she had come from earlier. She didn't have to try to sense him to know he was already pursuing her. The wound in her side burned as she ran. She could taste the blood rising in her mouth, but continued to run as fast as she could. The further she ran, the harder it was to breathe.
She stopped against a tree, coughing blood onto the ground. The wound was closing, but not as quickly as she would have liked. Faintly, she could sense more people coming towards her, recognizing their chakra patterns. Kakashi! Miro! Guy! If she continued running back to them, eventually they would meet, but it was too late. While she was stopped, Kabuto had caught up to her. It didn't take long before her vision went blurry then faded to black.
When she awoke, Nayamae found herself on her bed facing the stone wall. Distantly, she could hear someone screaming. Carefully, she sat up and checked herself. The wound in her side was mostly healed. Her blood still stained her clothes and she could still taste it in her mouth. She got up as quickly as she could, grabbing her sword from against the wall, then dashing across the room to the door. To her surprise, it was unlocked. She peeked out into the hallway, expecting to see someone guarding the room. The hall was empty except the burning torches on the walls and the screams echoing from another side of the hideout. She thought it was strange Kabuto would attack her and then leave her alone with access to a weapon, especially after telling him what she planned to do. She felt her pocket and found the kunai was still there. It made her uneasy.
Swiftly she made her way out of the room and down the hall towards the screams. She didn't sense anyone nearby, but kept on high alert, her hand ready to unsheathe her sword at a moment's notice. She was hoping to kill Orochimaru in the middle of whatever horrible experiment he was currently doing.
She passed a door, sensing multiple people in the room, recognizing them as the stolen children from the village. She stopped in front of the door, wondering whether she should go ahead and free them to lead them out, but the screams were louder now, coming from just around the corner. She would have to trust that Kakashi and the others would be coming soon. She moved from the door and went around the corner. Slowly, she unsheathed her sword from its hilt, holding it out in front of her as she approached the door at the end of the hall. The screams were louder now. Orochimaru wouldn't hear if she opened the door.
Quietly, she opened the door and entered, sliding along the wall of the room. Orochimaru's back was to her. She could see one of the children was on the table in front of him, tears streaming down his young face and his mouth wide open as he screamed. Black marks were beginning to form on his skin, crawling up to face. Nayamae felt anger build intensely inside her chest, burning hot. She could feel the boy's pain as if it were her own. She gave out a loud cry before running in for an attack to his back. He turned when he heard her cry, catching her sword between his hands.
Orochimaru gave her a snake-like smile. "So good you see you again, Nayamae! It's been such a long time!" he said while dodging another attack from her. He had pulled a blade out from his own pocket to block her own.
"I can't say I've enjoyed coming back here," she replied as their blades collided. "I'm not letting you experiment on these children anymore!" She continued to come at him, making her attacks as random as she could.
"Oh? Would you like to take their place?" he asked cunningly.
She bared her teeth and growled. "Haven't you had enough of me?" she asked, attempting to stab him in his side.
"My dear, never!" He moved around her sword, giving her a hard kick to her stab wound, sending her to the ground with a thud.
She landed near the table where the boy lay still. Pain had shot through the still healing wound, throbbing incessantly and echoing in her ribs. The boy turned his head towards her, looking at her with blind eyes. She felt her skin burning hotter, she growled deep in her throat as she turned to Orochimaru again. "What have you done with my kitsunebi?" she demanded, struggling to sit up.
"Look at the boy," he replied, gesturing towards the table. "It's the only thing that's keeping them alive while I do my work!" Nayamae had pulled herself up against the table. As she looked down at the boy, taking in his marked skin and blind eyes, she noticed a small glow in the middle of his chest, surrounding his heart. "I've found your fire to be quite useful in keeping subjects alive. To remove it would kill them." She continued to stare down at the boy, feeling immense guilt that the boy was still alive for such torture. It was her fault he was still breathing. Her fists clenched on the table.
"Now what I would like to know is," Orochimaru continued, as he sauntered towards her, "who undid the seal I created? And how?" He was close enough to touch her.
"Why don't you ask him yourself!" she yelled, quickly driving her sword through his stomach. Orochimaru gasped and gripped the blade.
"You bitch!" he shouted, quickly making symbols with his hands and then pressing his hand against her forehead. Nayamae's vision swirled and her grip fell from her sword. She fell to her knees at his feet, unsure of what was happening. "Tell me," Orochimaru said through clenched teeth, "who undid the seal I created?"
Nayamae felt like she was about to throw up. She began to speak before she could stop the words from coming out of her mouth. "A leaf shinobi named Kakashi Hatake. He used his sharingan." Bile rose in her throat.
He knelt down and grabbed her by the hair, pulling her face up next to his. "Were you helping him to come here?"
She tried to keep her mouth shut, but she spoke anyway. "Y-yes!" she cried, holding the hand he had gripping her hair. "T-there are t-two others with him!" she added. "A man named Miro and another named Might Guy." He released her head, throwing her back onto the floor at his feet. She felt horrible. Her vision continued to spin and she couldn't tell where or what she was looking at. She tried to keep herself grounded to the floor.
Despite the sword through his middle, Orochimaru seemed to be functioning perfectly fine. He pulled her sword out and threw it onto the ground beside her. Just to prove he was feeling well, he gave her a swift kick to her head, knocking her out completely. It didn't take him long before he had made a new seal on the back of her left hand, this one he was sure no one could remove.
Kabuto had entered the room, shutting the door behind him. "Orochimaru-sama! We have some visitors."
Orochimaru looked up from Nayamae. "How many?"
"Three men. Two of them are ANBU."
He nodded. "Start a fire. We'll be out of here before they find them." He looked at the boy still lying unresponsive on the table. "This trial wasn't working anyway. We'll have to try something else." He knelt beside Nayamae. "As for this one, she'll take care of our visitors if the fire doesn't quite stop them." He pressed his fingers to the new seal and she opened her eyes. Instead of brown they were red. "Excellent," he said, pleased. "Nayamae, we have some unwelcome visitors. Show them out."
Wordlessly, she pulled herself up, grabbed her sword, and swiftly exited the room. Orochimaru turned to Kabuto. "Put him with the others," he ordered, gesturing to the boy. "Then we leave."
Despite being the last one to fall asleep, Kakashi was the first one to wake. The sky hadn't even begun to turn pink and was still quite dark. He stood and started packing the camp. As he moved through the camp, he nudged Guy and Miro awake.
"We need to get going. Now," Kakashi said, while Miro rubbed the sleep from his eyes and Guy immediately stood, looking well rested.
"I'm getting too old for this," Miro complained, popping his back.
"Nonsense!" Guy exclaimed. "The power of youth runs in all of us!" He struck a pose, embarrassing himself in front of the other two men.
"Right," Kakashi said, zipping his bag closed. "Let's go."
Following Kakashi, the three men tracked Nayamae's trail. After about an hour, they found the creek bed where she had tried carving into the end of a stick. Wood shavings littered the small bank beside the water. After stopping for a drink, they continued on. Kakashi felt as though they were getting close. He had noticed a suspicious lack of animals the further they went. It was just past early morning by the time they had found a puddle of blood staining the base of a tree.
"We can't know for sure that it's her blood, Kakashi," reasoned Miro.
"No," he reluctantly agreed, "but it is on the same path she took. Whose else could it be?"
"What about an animal? Maybe a hunter got its prey?" Guy suggested.
"That's what I'm afraid of," Kakashi muttered, thinking of Orochimaru. He shook his head. "No, if it was an animal attack there would be fur or feathers. There's just blood here. Plus there hasn't been an animal around here for the last ten miles." He looked at the puddle again, noticing the trail of blood that followed behind it. They followed the spots of blood until they suddenly stopped.
"There was a struggle," Miro said, pointing to the grass that had obvious footprints pressing the blades down. "She was wounded here and took off that way. Must have gotten caught by that tree."
"But where did they go from there?" Guy asked, looking around. "There's not much but more forest beyond here. Except," he said, pointing a finger to a distant rocky hillside, "that sure has potential for a hideout."
The three of them agreed to go towards the hillside. At the base of the hill was a cave.
"Be on the lookout for boobytraps," warned Kakashi. "We are dealing with Orochimaru, so if anyone finds anything, either Nayamae, the children, or Orochimaru himself, call it over the headset. The signal may cut out in the cave so if no one responds and you're in danger, get out."
They put the portable radios in their pockets and in their ears, before entering the cave and spreading out.
It wasn't dark in the cave, like Kakashi initially thought it would be. Torches soon began to light the halls as the cave walls turned into solid corridors. He couldn't hear anything down any hall he passed, but behind several doors he heard strange noises. He decided against opening any doors with loud growling coming from the other side.
It wasn't long before Guy whispered over the radio. "I smell smoke," he said. "We need to move quickly. Oh!"
"What is it?" responded Miro.
"I've found them!" Guy exclaimed. "I've found them! I'm on the west side. Follow the smell of smoke! Hurry!"
"I'm close, I'll be there shortly," replied Miro.
"On my way," Kakashi said as he began to run towards the other side of the hideout. He stopped suddenly when he saw someone else was standing in the middle of the corridor. She looked as if she had been waiting for him. Her sword was drawn, but hung loosely in her hand at her side. From his end of the hall, he could see her eyes glowing dark red.
"Miro, Guy, I've found Nayamae." Static echoed in his ear. "I've found Nayamae," he repeated. "She's armed. I think Orochimaru got to her before we got here."
In a flash, Nayamae was standing in front of Kakashi, her sword aimed at his throat. He smacked the blade away before she could stab him, bringing his foot up and kicking the sword from her hand. She let the sword go, reaching for the kunai in her pocket. He grabbed one of his own kunai, meeting hers with a loud clang. The color of her eyes unsettled him as they pushed against each other's strength. He pushed her back against the wall, but she pressed back, equally meeting his force with a low growl in her throat.
"What has he done to you?" Kakashi grunted, struggling against her. She growled again, baring her teeth at him. He felt her body immediately get hotter as she formed a ball of fire in her free hand. She tried to shove it in his face, but he threw her to the ground behind him, watching as she rolled back up to a kneeling position.
He heard static in his ear as she immediately jumped at him, her nails suddenly longer than they had been. "Ka-wh-re you? Ge-! we have-ren!-ire!" He couldn't understand what Miro was saying over the radio. The static was too great and he was too preoccupied fighting with Nayamae. There was no moment in their fight he could respond to them. He was on the ground now, holding her hands away from his face as she tried to scratch him. He had to somehow get his headband up and get her to look at his sharingan.
Suddenly, she let out a loud cry that sounded animalistic. Her skin was burning hot to the touch as she stopped attacking Kakashi and rolled off to the side, writhing on the floor. Kakashi watched as she seized, trembling horribly as waves of tension reverberated throughout her body. He suddenly noticed the black mark on her hand as she clenched and unclenched her fists. Her nails dug into the floor, leaving deep marks. Thinking quickly, he lifted his headband and began to work on undoing the seal.
This seal was different this time. It was more complex than the previous one, but seemed more loosely attached to her. It wasn't in any particular shape, but it didn't really matter. It felt like hours before Nayamae had even begun to stop seizing. He hadn't been able to remove the seal, only suppress its power. He would have to try again later. Kakashi could smell the smoke heavily now. The fire was getting closer to them. They needed to move. He finished just as he saw the flames begin coming around the corner and down the corridor. When he looked back down at Nayamae, there was instead a small fox. Without thinking, he picked up the fox, tucked it into his arms, and began to run out of the cave.
Alright so there's a lot of stuff going on and there's a lot of stuff I want to put into this fic so we shall see where this takes us! I'm excited to write this all out, even though it's certainly not one of my more popular stories, but that's okay. :) I write because I enjoy it not for the views.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please feel free to leave a review and give me some feedback! Let me know what you think should come out of this or something I should have done differently.
Thanks for reading!