Chapter 3:
"Kokoro." Kokoro looked up from folding her silks. Aiko, the young daughter of the green-eyed twin Ai, was tugging at her skirt. "Kokoro," she whined. "where are you going?" Kokoro ruffled Ai's dark hair and smiled.
"I'm leaving," she said. "A man in the Otogakure is in love with me, and he wants me to be with him." Aiko gripped the silky cloth in her hands.
"But you can't go!" she cried, sniffing back her tears. "You're nice to me when Momma isn't, and you teach me songs." Kokoro gently kissed Aiko's cheek.
"I wish I could stay, Bubah," she sighed, using Aiko's pet name. "Lord Orochimaru needs me, too. Kabuto is taking me to him tonight." Kokoro tapped Aiko's small, freckled nose. "When I have a baby," she informed her, "I promise that I'll visit you, okay?" Aiko smiled, and she whistled a little tune as she skipped away to find her mother.
Kokoro sighed loudly, her hands resting where her womb would be. She thought back to the time when Ai was pregnant and gave birth in the middle of an important festival. The poor woman had been in pain for hours. Kokoro remembered how afraid she was to have children, and how angry the Kazekage was for the interruption of the festival.
Orochimaru will want an heir, she thought. If anything happens to me like what happened during Ai's pregnancy… This is not good.
"Kokoro," Kabuto said as he pulled the curtain in the doorway aside, "let's go." Kokoro draped a white cloak around her shoulders, and she carried her bundle of possessions in her arms.
"I'm ready," she murmured.
As Kabuto led Kokoro though the halls, the other women sang laments and children cried to see their playmate leave. The twins approached her at the dancing circle. Together they presented a final gift to their friend. Ai placed Kokoro's flute in her hands.
"Never stop playing," she smiled, her make-up smeared by her free-flowing tears, "so that you may not forget about your friends." Kokoro tightly gripped the instrument.
"Thank you, girls," she said. "Lord Orochimaru will be pleased with your gift to me." Kabuto grasped Kokoro's arm.
"Lady Kokoro, Orochimaru is waiting," he hissed. "We have to go, now." Kokoro shrugged off his hand.
"Don't touch me," she growled. "I won't see these girls for months. Lord Orochimaru can wait." Kabuto moved his hands quickly to summon a jutsu. He suddenly thrust his fingers beneath Kokoro's ribcage, and he caught her body as she fell unconscious toward the ground.
"Forgive me, Lady Kokoro," he murmured, stroking the stray hairs in front of her eyes. Ai tore at Kabuto's cloak.
"Damn you!" she snapped. "Treat Kokoro gently! She's carrying Lord Kazekage's child." Kabuto seized the collar of Ai's costume.
"That can't be true," he gasped. "Orochimaru knew that she wasn't a virgin, but this…? He'll be furious when he finds out." He ran his fingers through his silver hair. "It's too late," he sighed. "I have to take her. I'm sorry." He slung Kokoro over his shoulder, and he bounded through the garden and over the gates. Ai crumbled to her knees, sobbing loudly. Her sister knelt beside her and wiped her tears away.
"Sister," she whispered softly, "please calm down. Aiko cannot see you like this." Ai choked back another cry, and she tightly grasped her sister's hand.
"The Kazekage's line is doomed," she informed her twin. "The snake man stole the heart of the Sand Village, the placement of our lord's seed. Without her, we are useless. We'll surely be turned out into the streets by Lord Gaara!!"
"If Lord Orochimaru is merciful, the child will live, and Kokoro can come home to raise her son."
"She won't come back," Ai whimpered. "As the bride of the Otagakage, she can't leave, no matter what we do." She buried her head in her sister's tunic, and she cried, ignoring the gathering crowd of girls around her. Together they began to sing for Kokoro, a final farewell to the Kazekage's heart.