I'm so proud of myself with this chapter. I think I did rather well, and in a short amount of time, too. :D I hope that you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, considering that I should be asleep, but was writing instead, lol. Oh, well. Enjoy!

Nicola

Chapter Seventeen: Unwanted Memories

Kaede strode alongside the white-faced man, hands clasped behind her back, chin tilted upwards, allowing her to have a better view of the sky. With Orochimaru at her side, she felt calm and serene, but her senses were on a haywire. Every little rustle of grass, every twitter of a bird settling in for the sunset she heard. Each slight movement of a mouse or butterfly she saw. And she saw Orochimaru watching this with satisfaction.

At eleven, she was a rather skilled ninja, up to an advanced Chunin level, according to Kabuto, Kimimaro and Orochimaru's reasoning. She had no inkling about what they were up to, what they had done, who they were. All she knew was that they were the only family she had, her sensei and sparring partners.

She and Orochimaru made their way to the old cabin at which they always watched the sunset. It had turned into a habit with them, sitting on the cabin's roof and gazing at the colors created by the setting sun mingling with the rising moon and stars. The sight was always beautiful, but somehow always different. The way the colors were, where they were placed, the bare imprint of the stars you could hardly see…they all changed each and every day.

As they both leapt onto the roof, Kaede allowed herself a sneaky glance in Orochimaru's direction. The snake man had barely changed in all the time she'd known him. From the time he'd taken her as a six-year-old under his wing to sitting with him now on the rooftop of an old cabin, his demeanor, appearance, attitude hadn't changed a bit. Sure, he looked a bit older, but not very, and he had gotten a bit more chakra to add to his already large supply, but he was still the same man who had offered her a wonderful life and the strength she needed to be a great ninja.

Smiling, she leaned against Orochimaru's shoulder, ignoring the strange, alerting twinge in the pit of her stomach. It always occurred whenever she made contact with Orochimaru. It had always been there, but so had he, and he'd never done any harm to her.

…Kaede felt herself being lifted into the air by a strong pair of arms and the jaunty, urgent step of whomever those arms belonged to. Vaguely she heard several yelling, concerned voices, felt warm hands moving over her chest. She knew whose hands they were, who was carrying her, and who was yelling, but she couldn't seem to place them. All she knew was that they were friends, people who were going to help her.

She felt herself drifting off into odd memories, locked away in a part of her mind that she didn't wanted opened. She tried in vain to stop it, mumbling an incoherent "no," physically trying to prevent that door unlocking. But it wasn't going to happen….

Kaede slowly chewed on her breakfast—toast and butter—without vigor, her eyes never leaving Orochimaru's back. He was standing facing away from her, speaking in low tones to Kabuto. The four-eyed ninja pushed his glasses back up onto his nose and a small smirk titled one corner of his mouth. As if she wouldn't see it.

She was nearing her twelfth birthday, something she refused to let anyone know. She hated celebrating her birthday, because each one meant that she was a year closer to being asked to serve Orochimaru for life, and she was having doubts about it.

For as long as she'd known Orochimaru, she'd felt a strange, unwelcome twinge in her stomach every time she physically touched him. It didn't happen unless their hands bumped, she leaned on his shoulder, he hit her in a sparring match, whatever. As long as they touched.

Lately, though, it had been getting worse.

Orochimaru and Kabuto normally had their quiet little conversations every once an a while, maybe once a week, maybe once a month. And Kaede had always politely acted as if she weren't hearing a word they said, which she wasn't, because she hadn't cared about their talks. Now, though, they had been getting longer, more frequent, and somehow more involving her.

It wasn't really as if they were speaking her, but more like the subtle glances in her direction, small gestures, little facial hints that their conversation was about her. It was odd, too, because now, instead of talking in normal voices, they spoke in whispers, which really irked her.

Another thing, too, that was bothering her was that insistent twinge in the pit of her stomach.

Usually, it only happened when she and Orochimaru made contact with one another, but recently, it had begun to start up again whenever Orochimaru came into the room, or when she heard his voice, even if he was far off, and it really became annoying when they touched. What was once a small, slightly irritation twinge was becoming a pain that nearly doubled her over.

She should trust her gut feeling, but she couldn't. Orochimaru had given her everything, trained her under his careful, experienced supervision, and taught her jutsu that only he and one other person knew. She should be grateful.

But she wasn't. She was beginning to think that Orochimaru wasn't the kind man he acted like when around her. She was starting to see his true colors, and they weren't pretty.

…Her head swirling relentlessly, neck throbbing, Kaede was set down on a bed, and she moaned, still not completely conscious but awake enough to realize where she was and who was around her.

Someone was running a hand over her shoulder and up to the mark on her neck. She knew the collar of her shirt had been cut to further reveal the bruise causing her so much pain, and was relieved when she heard her sensei's voice. It was vague and far away, but she heard it.

"We'll have to seal this," he was saying softly, and she stirred slightly at the words. She didn't want to seal it away; she wanted it to stay, she wanted to figure out what the heck was starting it up again when it hadn't bothered her in years, not since she'd received it.

Oh, Kami. The darkness of those memories was coming back; she didn't want to go back and live through it again. No, please…

Now twelve, Kaede was sitting with Orochimaru in a quiet room of their strange home. She was supposed to be focusing her chakra and working on storing it up, but she couldn't concentrate. Whenever she knew Orochimaru wasn't looking, she would steal a glance at him, wondering why he was having her perform such a simple exercise that she already had down pat. She didn't need to focus and meditate to store up chakra; she could do that in her sleep for Kami's sake!

She was still getting those weird feelings about being around Orochimaru, and at the moment, the pain in her stomach was nearly crippling. She hoped that it didn't show on her face, for Orochimaru would ask what was wrong and send her to Kabuto for healing, which wouldn't work, of course. She didn't want that to happen. Knowing Kabuto he'd probably get all flustered and upset and say she was faking it.

Orochimaru turned from having his back to her and a strange, creepy grin made its way across her face. Kaede fought back the chill threatening to crawl up her spine and stared him straight in the eyes.

"Have you been focusing your chakra?" he asked, taking a step closer to her and leaning down so they were at eye level. When she nodded, he chuckled lightly and his grin widened. "Good, good."

And then, before she knew it, his head lashed out, his neck extending from his body towards hers. Frightened, she jumped out of her chair and gasped, wide-eyed, but she was a little too late. Those horrible fangs of his sank into her neck, piercing the skin and drawing blood. She felt pain like she had never experienced before in her life, and opened her mouth with a groan.

When Orochimaru finally released her, she fell to the ground, twitching and writhing in agony, feeling a strange bruise-like spot forming on her neck. She moaned and groaned with pain, clutching her neck where he'd bitten her. Why would he do this? Was this what her gut feeling had been trying to tell her? Oh, Kami, it was as if she were dying!

And then, all went black, a welcome, comforting, peaceful black.

…With a loud gasp, Kaede sat straight up, breathing heavily, her eyes wide and her face covered in sweat. She looked wildly around her, her hand flying up to touch the mark on her neck, her heart thudding hard against her rib cage. Naruto was to her left, watching with concerned and shocked eyes. Apparently they hadn't expected her to wake up so soon.

A soothing hand landed on Kaede's shoulder, and she turned to look who it belonged to. It was Sakura, trying to comfort her friend into lying back down. Kaede took in Sakura's worried face and relaxed, but her hand never left her neck.

It was then that she noticed all of the other people around her. Kakashi was leaning lightly on his crutch at the end of her bed, Miki was standing just behind Sakura with Neji; Tsunade was checking the charts, her brow furrowed with worry, and, just walking into the room, was Sasuke, his aloofness seeming to spread directly to her. At the sense and feel of his presence, she was soothed and sank into the pillows placed behind her, closing her eyes momentarily before removing her hand from her neck and allowing it to lay by her side.

Sasuke, curious as to what was going on, walked over next to Naruto and paused, staring down at the woman lying in the bed before speaking.

"What happened?" were his only two words, and it was all that Naruto needed before responding.

"We found her collapsed in the kitchen after hearing her screams of pain," he said, a frown marring his handsome features. "As soon as we figured out what was going on with her, we took her into the medical room and let Tsunade and Sakura calm her down." With a sigh, he looked down at his hands clutching the side railing of the bed. Kaede followed his gaze, shocked to see that his knuckles were white with the tightness of his grip. "All along, none of us ever knew. And, according to Tsunade, neither did she, because it was something she didn't want to remember. She has the curse seal, Sasuke, like you do."

Sasuke didn't move, but Kaede was able to see the slight tightening of his jaw and the way he clenched his fists. He, too, had never seen the mark on her neck, having never expected her to have one. He knew about her being with Orochimaru as a child, but certainly the snake Sannin wouldn't give a mere child the power of the curse seal.

Kaede swallowed hard and forced herself to look away from Sasuke. They had ended it, she reminded herself firmly and instead chose to smile up at Miki and Sakura. Both girls were frightened and worrisome, obviously needed some consolation. She needed a little comfort, too, but they offered none.

"We think it activated because of three things: Orochimaru's presence being near her," Kakashi spoke up suddenly, his one eye half-closed but his stature showing he was alert and thinking, "a recent traumatic event," Kaede and Sasuke both visibly winced at this, "or Orochimaru is suspicious or in a really foul mood and is trying to let us know."

Silently Kaede begged whatever God there was to let the last one be true. She would rather not have everyone know her curse seal had activated because of her breakup with Sasuke, and it would be terrible if Orochimaru were getting closer. She shuddered at the very thought of him attacking what was left of the people in her village.

Turning on his heel, Sasuke strode out of the medical room without another word. Everyone stared after him except for Kaede and Kakashi, who were exchanging rather nasty looks between the two of them. Her lip curling in a snarl, Kaede let her old sensei know just how peeved she was with his insistence on adding that little "recent traumatic experience" bit. He responded by raising his one eyebrow very subtly and tilting his chin up in something of a challenge.

Not in the mood to fight it out with Kakashi, Kaede settled back onto her pillows again, crossing her arms over her chest and putting on her pouting, defeated face. This day was just not going her way.



"I'm fine, Tsunade-sama, just let me out, please," Kaede begged for the millionth time. It was the day after her little episode in the kitchen involving her curse seal, and ever since waking up that morning, she'd been arguing with Tsunade to let her out of this damned bed for hours!

The former Hokage shook her head firmly. "No, I'm not done with all of your tests yet. I want to scan the area around that curse seal and see what nerves set it off. If I can pinpoint those, I might be able to find out what made it activate."

"You know as well as I do that it's probably Orochimaru playing one of his sick-minded little games," Kaede said sourly, wrinkling her nose at the very thought. That old jerk needed a knock on the head to send him back to reality. "I could be out of here and helping out everyone else! Besides, we don't even have a scan machine down here!"
"Kaede!" Tsunade said sternly. Kaede looked up at the older woman without hesitation, her face as aloof and stoic as Sasuke's. With a heavy sigh, Tsunade pulled a chair up to the bed and sat down. "You need to be quiet and let me finish my work here, okay? I know the limit of resources we have, and I can understand how frustrating it is for such an active person to be cooped up in this underground hideout, much less this little bed. But you have to just put up with it until this war blows over and Orochimaru's dumb Sound village is put in its place. Okay?"
Reluctantly, Kaede nodded, but that did not cease the insults and complaints whirring through her head. Stupid, mean, big-breasted witch. Won't let me out of here when we don't have anything to test with. Besides, I know I'm fine. Humph. I don't need her telling me that.

"And don't think nasty things, either, Kaede," Tsunade said as she moved back across the room to tend to another sick patient. She turned and held up a threatening fist. "You know what I'm capable of when someone irritates me."

Knowing full well that Tsunade wouldn't try anything as long as they were underground, but still slightly frightened at the prospect of being taken above ground to have the silly string beaten out of her, Kaede blocked even those bad thoughts that Tsunade seemed to hear.

Instead of complaining, she decided to muse over the memories that had plagued her during her episode.

Remembering that walk with Orochimaru—one of many that had happened over the years—had apparently started a chain of memories. Now, as she recalled that little twinge in her stomach, she mentally kicked herself for not seeing it for what it was. A warning, a warning that Orochimaru was up to no good. Soon the twinge had become pain, and eventually crippling pain the day Orochimaru gave her the mark on her neck. She should've listened to that feeling, listening to her instincts and ran off as soon as the chance opened up.

But she hadn't, and now she was living with the result—a curse seal that was causing her pain for the first time since the age of twelve. And she wasn't content with the explanations given to her. She had a bad feeling that Orochimaru was up to something else, and if he was, it would ruin their entire plan. They were still based off letting the snake Sannin get comfortable in his position and let his guard down. Yet since the attack on their underground hideout, she knew he was on his toes and not going to let anything stand in the way of his dream.

Sadly, though, she thought with bitter happiness, it wasn't going to turn out the way he wanted. Konoha was going to reign again, despite all of Orochimaru's efforts to keep it under wraps. She would personally see to it.

The door leading out into the hallway opened and Naruto came through, awkwardly shutting it behind him and walking over to her bed. She curiously wondered why he had one hand behind his back until he pulled a bouquet of handpicked flowers. He held the little bouquet out to her, and she gladly took it, putting the blooms up to her nose and breathing in their sweet scent. She hid her blush with the flowers, ashamed of her stupid reaction. Inside, though, her stomach was churning as she thought how much more of an invalid this made her feel.

"Thanks, Naruto," she said genuinely, placing the bouquet in the glass of water on her makeshift bedside table—it was a box with a board on top of it. Naruto grinned ear to ear, blushing discretely himself.

"You're welcome," he replied modestly, rubbing the back of his head. She couldn't help but grin; he was so sheepish!

"They're wonderful. I can't believe you went out and picked them for me," she said softly, staring at the flowers. She saw Naruto stir slightly out of the corner of her eye and turned her attention back to him. "What's the matter?"

"Well…" He was hesitating, this wasn't a good sign. This was Naruto she was speaking to, scream-and-jump-in-and-get-it-done-and-over-with Naruto! Why was he hesitating?! Oi, calm down, idiot. You're getting paranoid.

Yes, she was just being paranoid about the whole thing. She took a shuddering breath and waited for Naruto to continue talking.

"Sasukewantstodropthewholeplanbecausehe'safraidyou'llgethurt," Naruto said in such a rush that Kaede had to actual repeat his words to herself and sound them out before she understood. When she'd deciphered his mumble-jumble, her eyes widened to twice the size of a half-dollar and she grabbed Naruto by the collar of his shirt.

"What did you say?" she practically growled at him, causing Tsunade and the man in the bed next to her to look over curiously. Well, the man was curious, Tsunade just looked guilty. "Did you just say that Sasuke is going to quit with the plan because he doesn't want me to get hurt?" Naruto nodded hurriedly, obviously frightened, and Kaede shoved him back onto the chair, shaking her head and staring at the ceiling. "Oh, my Kami. He did not. He did not!"

Completely disregarding Tsunade's angry comments, Kaede threw the covers off of her, stood up from the bed, and stalked towards the door, fully intending to go find that damn Uchiha man and throttle him until he was blue! She didn't care if he left the village because he said he still cared for it. She didn't care that their relationship was off and that there was nothing left for them to stand on, but what really struck her last nerve was his ignorance to the village he claimed the care for!

She heard Tsunade call after her, Naruto stand up and dash after her, yelling for her to wait for a minute, but she ignored them. There was no way in hell on earth she was going to let Sasuke ruin Konoha's last chance at getting its home back. What she ever saw in that selfish, disgusting, Orochimaru-loving bast—

"Kaede!" Naruto hollered, finally reaching her and grabbing onto her shoulder. She tried to wrench out of his grasp, found she couldn't, and proceeded to drag him down the hallway with her. He dug in his heels, grappling for some sort of traction, and found in, hauling her to a stop.

She swung on him, her face more vicious than his when his demon chakra was activated. With her teeth bared, her eyes literally flaming, and her brow furrowed into and unrecognizable expression, she was a tremendous sight. Naruto's courage wavered for a moment before he grabbed her by both shoulders and shook her. Hard.

Her teeth clacked together and her head jerked back and forth until Naruto stopped shaking her and held her in place. That was definitely unnecessary, and definitely not going to work, either. She was still going to kill Sasuke.

"You need to settle down and get a hold of yourself," he said reasonably, his blue eyes pleadingly boring into her hazel ones. "Get a grip, Kaede. You know he's only doing this to protect you. He doesn't want Orochimaru to hurt you in any way." He was silent for a moment, letting his words sink in. "It's what I would do."

She heard Naruto, understood him, and knew where he was coming from, but she did not need protecting. If anything, she was going to protect everyone else! She pulled away from Naruto, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and smiling sheepishly. Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, she said, "You're right, Naruto. I'm going to go get some rest and then think about what else we can do."

Apparently satisfied, Naruto pulled her in a hug, and she realized something as she hugged him back. She was headed the wrong way. Sasuke wasn't dumb enough to stick around near all the other citizens of Konoha. He'd go to the kitchen with the Jounin who accepted him, or to the meeting room, or even outside.

Naruto let go, and so did she, that smile still on her face. She began walking towards the medical room again, and as soon as she reached it, knowing Naruto was watching with a satisfied grin, she took off at a flat out run.

Echoing down the hall, Naruto's voice followed her as she dashed into the kitchen momentarily, saw no Sasuke, and out again. Her rapidly moving feet carried her to the meeting room and, seeing the door was slightly ajar, she slammed it open to reveal the stony-faced Sasuke leaning against the far wall, which wasn't very far away.

Sasuke's widened black eyes revealed how surprised and slightly afraid he was to see her rushing at him like an angry wild cat. She grabbed him by the throat, and, using strength she didn't know she had, she shoved him up against the wall he was leaning on, her fingers tightening along his neck. He resisted, kicking and grabbing onto her wrists, but she wouldn't let him down until he had heard what she had to say.

"You don't get it, do you, Uchiha?" she snarled, her face not even inches from his. "I don't need you to protect me anymore. I can do just fine on my own. You don't need to just quit this damn plan we had. You can't just throw it away. Konoha needs this plan to work, you hear me? You hear me?! We need this plan!! We need to get our village back, and kick Orochimaru out! If you help us in this, I can assure you that your place in Konoha will be restored, but if you chicken out, you'll be thrown out with all the rest of the Sound trash!"

With that, she released her chokehold on his throat and he fell to the ground, coughing and gasping for air. Adrenaline pumped through her veins after finally telling Uchiha Sasuke just how she felt. She had finally gotten him in her advantage, taken him by surprise and threatened him with his life.

Naruto skidded to a stop in front of the door, startled by what he saw. Sasuke regaining his breath on the floor, Kaede breathing heavily over him with her fists clenched tightly at her sides.

She had had him at her mercy, her fingers tight around his throat. She could have killed him—she had no idea why she hadn't. She settled with not having killed him because he was an asset to the survival of her village. That was the most likely reason. The other option…she didn't even want to think of.

"What are you doing, Kaede?" Naruto said sharply, grabbing her by the arm and towing her away from Sasuke, who was now standing with his eyes glaring viciously. "Did you just try to kill him?"

"No," she said, oddly calm and peaceful. "I just got my point across."

By this time, Sakura had come down the hallway with Kakashi and Gai—who had been hanging around with Lee since he'd come back—at her heels. They stopped in front of the room, peering curiously around inside. Kaede greeted them with a collected lift of her chin and jerked her head in Sasuke's direction. But Naruto answered their probing stares before she could.

"I think she just tried to strangle Sasuke," he said simply, still holding her arms behind her back in an effort to restrain any further attempts to kill the Uchiha. "I told her about him wanting to quit and drop the plan, and she flipped. She tricked me and got away."

Sakura immediately stepped inside and went over to Sasuke, ignoring the disgruntled noise he made as she reached up to check the bruises and red marks on his throat. She pursed her lips and touched the injuries, her hand glowing blue with healing chakra. When she moved, the marks were gone and the bruises were slowly disappearing.

"You'll be fine," she said simply, and turned her attention to Kaede, who had calmed down enough for Naruto to release her. "You, on the other hand, need a chill pill. What were you trying to do, ruin everything?"

"No," Kaede replied, rubbing her wrists where Sasuke had grabbed onto them so roughly during their struggle. "I just wanted to tell him how stupid he was and how many lives he was sacrificing in his effort to keep me safe."

"You need protection," was Sasuke's solemn answer as he came up to her, standing directly in front of her. When she tried to protest, he placed his finger on her lips. "We may have broken it off," he said in tones low enough so only she could hear him, "but you cannot keep going on like you are. Orochimaru remembered the curse seal he put on you years ago and decided to use it to his advantage. He can activate it at any time, during battle, when you're at your most vulnerable, whenever he feels like just being the sadistic sick-ass freak he is. You know how he gets when he's in his moods, and now he has something to take it out on. And I'll be damned if I let him hurt you."

Kaede swallowed hard, trying to gather all of her emotions. She felt heartsick and nervous with Sasuke standing so close, close enough to kiss him again. She was sobered by his words, and amazed at the length of time he had talked. It was terribly unusual for him to talk very much at all, much less a miniature speech.

When she finally found her voice and was able to answer, she said, "I appreciate your concern, but I've lived right underneath Orochimaru's nose long enough before, and I don't want to keep going on in the same place. This village is the only thing I have left, do you understand? These people, my friends, are my family, and I can't just let Orochimaru go ahead and destroy that."

"You don't…" Sasuke frowned and growled slightly in frustration, grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to him. As soon as she had started to resist, they had disappeared and reappeared somewhere outside.

Fighting back the urge to kick and scream and beat Sasuke senseless, Kaede waited until he let her down before she went with the complete opposite of these feelings and pulled him into a hug. He wrapped his arms around her without hesitation, holding her to his chest and slowly rocking her back and forth. She buried her face in his chest, breathing in his familiar scent as he rested his cheek on the top of her head and did the same.

She felt home again, as if nothing bad in the world existed and everything was what her mind thought it should be. That is, it all felt right until Sasuke pulled away.

"I brought us out here to talk," he said monotonously, shoving his hands lazily into his pockets as he leaned against the trunk of the tree he was standing in front of. Kaede mimicked his poster, only on the tree opposite him. They stood there for a few moments until she decided to break the silence and speak up.

"I can't believe you, Sasuke. You know me like the back of your hand, and you know how much I hate living under that horrible man's shadow. It kills me."

Sasuke merely nodded, inviting her to go on, which she refused to do. She could out-quiet Uchiha Sasuke any day. Besides, from the way he shifted his shoulders, she knew she'd hit a sore spot when she insisted that he should know how much it hurt her to have to let Orochimaru keep going like he was. It wouldn't be long.

After about fifteen minutes of silence and neither of them making a move to speak, Sasuke uttered a frustrated little sound and said, "Fine."

Satisfied, Kaede nodded slowly and held out her hand to him, not really expecting him to shake it, but not surprised when he did. "Good. Now, please, take me back."

There is nothing more satisfying than proving yourself right to a guy who thinks you're wrong, is there girls? Nope! At least, I don't think so. Anyway, I can't wait to read your reviews on this chapter as all my lovely reviewers have been so great and encouraging and stuff! Sniffle I'm gonna cry! No!

Anyway, this'll be the last update for a little bit--as long as I can keep myself away from the computer and my Microsoft Word--because my Dad says I can't read the new Harry Potter book when it comes out unless I finish my dumb reading assignment, Jane Eyre. I swear, that book is soooo boring. At least, it is for the moment. So I've gotta get reading on that, and working on teh two essays I have to write for it. AHHHH!

Luv ya

Nicola