3

Sasuki huddled miserably beside Gaara on a cushioned bench in the candlelit corridor, hands clasped over her ears, trying to shut out the echoes of Itachi's agonized screams. No matter how much she tried to tune Itachi's voice out, she could still hear the rising moans of her brother who, at the moment, was having his shattered arm removed in a last-ditch effort to save his life.

"Uh-don't cry…Itachi is going to be alright," Gaara awkwardly patted Sasuki's shoulder, not used to comforting anyone. "If anyone could survive this, it would be Itachi."

Before he could react, Sasuki's hand wrapped around his waist and her tears came gushing out.

"Gomen…I-I'll be…alright…after crying…" she sobbed.

To say Gaara was surprised was an understatement. He was VERY shocked;

1) He never saw his friend cried since eleven years ago when her clan was annihilated by their trusted comrades. Sasuki and Itachi were the sole survivors.

2) He was amazed that the sands didn't go up into their protective mode.

3) He was very surprised that he was hugging back the raven-haired girl, whispering soothing words of comforts.

After awhile Sasuki's sobbing subsided.

"Gomen…Gaara-kun," she hiccupped. "I don't know what came over me. I-I made your shirt all wet."

Gaara smiled. "It's okay. I guess I better change. I'll get you a glass of water too."

"A-arigato," Sasuki sniffled before grinning. "I wouldn't know what I'd do without you." Sasuki forced a laugh.

"I'll be back in a sec."

Sasuki returned back in trying to shut the screams again. But a sharp kick in the calf brought the girl upright on the bench. She looked up, her long-lashed onyx eyes hazy with grief and pain, and found Orochimaru, one of Itachi's men, standing before him.

His skin was paler than Sasuki's. He wore his hair long and lined his eyes with purple paint. Instead of normal eyes, his were slits: like a serpent's. In the candlelit corridor he looked ghostly white.

"How pathetic," the snake-eyed man spat, disgusted.

"My brother is dying," Sasuki reminded him pitifully.

Orochimaru's eyes glittered in their deep sockets. But it was best to conceal such emotions until Itachi was, in fact, dead, he was not all sorry to see his captain die. He had long ago set his goal on becoming the undisputed ruler of Hell's Peak Island. Everyone said, and Orochimaru himself believed that Itachi had stashed away a scroll filled with jutsus that he had copied from around the world. Once Itachi was dead, Orochimaru would claim them as his own. All that would stand in his way was…

His piercing eyes rested on the slender form of Itachi's only heir. If Itachi died – and by the sound of it he will – this girl will join her brother as soon as he forced the whereabouts of the scroll.

"I know he's dying," he agreed. "But it is not for you to cry pathetically and cover your ears. You should be there with him; beside him. You should help to save him. You should hold his arm while the doctor plies his saw."

"Shut up!" Sasuki shrieked. "I won't listen to you! You're nothing but a sick and twisted son of a whore! You want my brother to die! You want…"

Orochimaru's fist sliced through the air, sending Sasuki sprawling on the floor.

"Speak to me like that again, you little slut, I'll slashed out your guts for you." he hissed.

Pushing herself up and shook the dust off the dress she wore. "My brother…" she began.

Orochimaru's ice-like laughter interrupted her. "Your brother won't be here to protect you anymore, Sasuki-chan. Now get in there where you belong."

Grasping her arms, he dragged her toward the bedroom door. The screams had subsided now: nevertheless, Sasuki shrank from the thought of seeing her brother suffer the agonies of a hideous death.

They had almost reached the door when it opened and Naruto appeared.

"What's going on here?" he demanded, seeing the determined Orochimaru and the frantically fighting girl held in his merciless clutch.

"The girl belongs with her brother," Orochimaru snarled.

Sasuki gazed at Naruto with pleading eyes. Naruto himself, hardened after years at the sea to the more gruesome side of life, was feeling nauseous after what he had just witnessed. It was no place for a girl, especially if the patient was the girl's relative.

"Let her go," he told Orochimaru.

Orochimaru's mouth curled into a cruel parody of a smile. He released Sasuki. His eyes fused Naruto's glare. Hostility crackled as their stares locked. The Orochimaru spun on his heel and stalked off, disappearing in purple flames.

Sasuki wiped the tears away with her clothes and tried to compose herself, raising her icy barrier again. Naruto was standing infront of her as if expecting something, but her shield was already erected before her and she remained cool as ice. But she can't help but notice his blue eyes. She never met anyone like him before. From his brightly orange clothes to the spiky sun-kissed hair, he seemed from another world. His skin had been toasted by the sun to a tawny bronze, his eyes blue like the opened sky.

His eyes were hard and penetrating yet she can see something there. A twinkle; a locked inner childhood. There was also pain and loneliness.

"He's just like me," she gasped inwardly, her expression still fixed.

He put his arms around her, intending to give her a reassuring hug, but the girl pushed him away.

"My brother?" she managed.

Naruto frowned, his brows drew together. "I won't lie to you. The doctor doesn't think that he'll survive." He sighed as the girl turned away, apparently fighting back tears.

Itachi's last words before unconsciousness claimed him rang in Naruto's head: 'Will you take Sasuki away with you? If I die, everything will be in utter chaos and my sister will be in the centre of the storm.'

"What will you do after…when he…" he began.

Sasuki saved him the trouble of finding the right words.

"It's none of your damn business, is it? I expect you'll be long gone by then."

"I suppose I will. You have to understand that only your brother's authority is protecting my crew and my ship. Once he's…gone…we'll be at the mercy of whoever takes over."

"Orochimaru," she muttered.

Naruto didn't bother to hide his disgust. "Christ, that bastard," he scowled, troubled. "It isn't my crew I'm worried about, you see. My brother is also on the ship. You know well enough that pirates…" He shrugged.

"Why the hell don't you just get out of here, then?" Sasuki lashed out.

Naruto felt an overwhelming desire to slap her, but he let the insolence pass since it stemmed, he knew, from the grief and frustration of having to stand helplessly as someone she loved lay dying.

"Go to bed," he said gently. His azure eyes swept the girl from her tousled hair to her wrinkled and torn dress. "Have a bath first, why don't you? It might help you sleep."

Sasuki drew herself upright, insulted. "You're not my frickin' mother!" she hissed. Her face remained expressionless but her eyes dance with fire. "Don't tell me what to do."

She spun around and stormed off, every fiber of her lithe form spoke of indignation.

Naruto watched her go. He watched her hips swayed side to side. It was both entrancing and arousing. But the girl was sorely in need of discipline; that much was clear. Thank god, he wasn't the one to that had raised her. If he did, he'd probably wasted a lot of time beating discipline into her head instead of raiding and pirating. He couldn't help be grateful that he would leave this place with the turning of the tide.

In her room at the far end of the hall, Sasuki sat miserably on her bed. Her mind was filled the thoughts of a certain Uzumaki Naruto. How dare he try to boss her around? He's not her bloody guardian. Is he still single? Does he have a lover? A fiancée? Does he have a wife? She'd be beautiful of course. She'd be glittering and golden haired like Naruto himself. How would it feel to have his hands wrapped around her waist, her skin?

Sasuki shook her head. Where did that come from? Where the hell is Gaara anyway? She stood up and she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror across the room. Hell, she looked like she had just been having se…there she goes again. She slapped herself to regain her wits.

"Have a bath," Naruto had said. Like hell she's going to listen to him. But then she did look terrible.

"Fine! I'll take a bath just because I needed it anyway," she said to no one in particular. "Right, I'm not doing it for him."

Taking up her towels and another dress from her closet, Sasuki went downstairs to the bathroom. Unseen, Orochimaru was watching. Orochimaru followed silently and fluidly like a snake on the trail of its prey.

In the bathroom, Sasuki soaked one of her towels and washed her face then her neck. Then she proceeded to take her dress off.

Unnoticed by Sasuki, Orochimaru eased open the door she had forgotten to lock. He had watched the girl washed her face and neck. Orochimaru's eyes narrowed puzzled as though witnessing a madman at work.

Then they widened, the bewilderment banished by shock, as the torn dress was cast aside. A shiver coursed through Orochimaru's body as he saw the sight before him. Where there were supposed to be firm young breasts, there was only a flawless flat chest. Orochimaru's eyes traveled down Sasuki's body and he saw something that erased any possible questions of gender.

Fujiwara Sasuki, sister of the infamous pirate Fujiwara Itachi, the scourge of the sea was as male as it was possible to be.

Orochimaru looked on as Sasuki stepped up against the mirror.

"Konichiwa. I'm Sasuke." He said in that girly voice of his. He frowned, cleared his throat and tried again. "I'm Sasuke. Fujiwara Sasuke." His voice was deeper but it still held the rich tone that can melt anyone.

Stunned, Orochimaru eased the door close and leaned against the wall beside it. Was it possible? He had just seen it proven, but how had Itachi and his sister - no, his brother – carried off the deception for so many years? From the cradle Sasuki – no, Sasuke had been raised as Itachi's sister. Had it been to protect from being killed by the members of the Fujiwara? Orochimaru had remembered something: the Fujiwaras would only accept one heir to rule in each generation. More than one could end up in a power struggle. So the boy who was born latter was supposed to be killed.

Orochimaru pictured again in his mind the lithe young body he had just seen. His tongue slithered out like a snake and he licked his lips.

"Soon, Sasuke-kun, you will have no brother to protect you." He laughed softly. "Soon I will rule Hell's Peak. Once I do, you will be mine. I will make you mine before any other can discover your secret you have hidden so well."

Pushing himself away from the wall, he disappear into the darkness, leaving his intended victim secure for the moment in his ignorance.