Strolling languidly across the narrow dirt pathway that lead to her master's abode, the anomalous grin that split her face but a moment ago vanishes; in its place is a deadened, solemn expression, maroon eyes cold and mouth set in a firm line. He is awaiting her return, and so she quickens her pace, nearly sprinting to the door in her haste. Unwilling to dawdle any further, she utilizes her vectors to open the door for her before flying inside, her hands leaving small craters in the earth as she rushes in.
A few minutes later, she is bowing before her master upon one knee, head down, deep pink locks obscuring her face. He stares briefly at her, raking his frozen yellow gaze against her form. Slowly, with the bearing possessed only by one whose aspirations concern but power and dominion, he approaches her. Gently, he places a bony, long-fingered hand atop her head, delicately stroking her cherry-hued mane. A tiny smirk played across his thing lips as he took in the sight of his lovely little prodigy. The power to rend human flesh with merely a thought, to rip a man limb from limb with a single glance, the power even to part the clouds...All of it lay at her fingertips. Just as she laid at his. His smile grew wider, eyes alight with mad glee as he continued to comb his fingers through the silky strands of his perfect, subservient student. She was Gaia, she was Lilith, she was Eve...No, she was Lucy and she was his. With that, he began to laugh, a hollow sound that seemed born out of malevolence and insanity rather than humor.
As per usual, Lucy took his handling of her in stride; it was a usual occurrence, after all. When she was younger, it had been disconcerting, but over the years, she had grown accustomed to it, simply noting it as yet another one of his odd habits. The ministrations ceased as suddenly as they had begun. "So, my dear Lucy, all went well, I presume?" In response, she slipped her rucksack off of her back, allowing it to hit the ground with an oddly fleshy thump. Slowly, almost teasingly, she withdrew the drawstring, the cloth falling away to reveal the human head concealed within it. Face empty of expression, she lifted it up by the hair, turning its visage to her own. Mouth still opened in an anguished scream, it stared blindly ahead at her as Lucy pulled it so near to her that she could have kissed the mangled flesh. Then, holding the decapitated head for her master to see, she carelessly allowed it to fall from her grasp in a pile of gore. The head had barely hit the ground before she released several vectors, crushing it into an unrecognizable heap of bloody pulp. "Mission completed, Orochimaru-sama."