A/N: I wrote this last night in my bed and already have another chapter jotted down ready to go so please read and review. :)

Chapter 2

The Scarlet Arrow

Ashes, Ashes

Tayuya wasted no time stuffing her face when Kai placed the plate of steamy breakfast foods in front of her. In truth it was late in the evening but Kai was a bit of a breakfast person anyways. The speed and intensity with which Tayuya shoveled her food reminded Kai a lot of Buster, the bull dog. This made Kai glance to Buster who simply sat on the floor and shook his head in disbelief. No maybe not even Buster was that bad, but Kai couldn't blame Tayuya. The only food she had eaten from the past month was whatever mush he could stuff in her mouth during her brief waking moments. Tayuya's plate was soon completely clean of food and held her plate out for more. Kai piled the rest of the food on her plate having made a little more than he intended overcompensating for the presence of another mouth, or maybe not at the rate she was eating. Kai still hadn't even touched his own food yet. In truth it had been so long since he sat at that table that he had to wipe off huge chunks of dust that collected on the table and chairs. Tayuya sure enough cleaned her plate again and Kai simply held out his own untouched plate of food. Tayuya hesitated for a moment. Normally she would have take the food without thought but normally no one was nice enough to cook food for her so she wasn't sure if she should devour Kai's food as well but boy she was hungry.

"Take it," Kai insisted shoving the plate into Tayuya's hands. Tayuya was about to shove it back into Kai's hands but her stomach grumbled loudly in protest to her mind. That was all it took for Tayuya to begin devouring the last of the food. After she had cleaned that plate her stomach was satisfied and quieted down to digest the generous and delicious meal. Tayuya feeling unnaturally well jumped to her feet. She was not rewarded feeling her knees buckle under her weight, sending Kai scrambling to save her face from imminent destruction. This time he managed to save her from completely falling and caught her before she even really fell. If some random stranger had decided to peek in the window at that moment it would look as if the two were simply sharing a loving hug.

"You have got to be careful Tayuya," Kai explained, "your legs have only just recently finished healing and you haven't walked in a little over a month." Emotions surged through Tayuya at her inability to walk and she felt her sudden outburst bubbling up from the bottom of her gut.

"Let go of me you fucktard. If I don't report back to Orochimaru soon he is gonna have my head!" Tayuya yelled complimenting her outburst with an impulsive smack as hard as she possibly could, which wasn't very hard at all, across Kai's face. Suddenly she was falling and hit the wooden floor hard. "What the fuck? I said let go of me not drop-" The words caught in her throat when she saw Kai's eyes. They were completely black and the pupil glowed bright red almost like the point of a laser. Kai was groaning in pain and clutching his hip.

"You bitch!" Kai roared, "What have you done?" Steam began radiating from Kai's body and he ripped his own shirt off with amazing speed and intensity. Tayuya gasped in shock at the sight before her eyes. Jagged lines shot from his hip like a tattoo crawling across his body. Soon the tattoo popped out of his body taking the shape of barbed wire and it began wrapping around his torso extending from his hip where an intricate seal she recognized all too well lay. The seal was much like her own if a little older.

Buster barked loudly and rushed over to his companion's side growling at the cursed seal. The dog's eyes and fangs glowed scarlet red. The dog sank it's fangs into Kai's hip right over the cursed seal. Shortly thereafter the fiery barbed wire consuming Kai's body began to recede back into the cursed seal. When the entirety of the seal had retracted the bull dog released his grip leaving a blood streaked hip behind. Once the whole ordeal Kai rubbed the cursed seal absentmindedly, his body was still steaming.

Kai turned his attention to the girl at his feet. Red dots appeared on her chest like lasers from Kai's eyes, which in fact is accurate. Tayuya simply laid there pitifully staring up at the stranger in fear and shock. Kai brought his hand up into a fist as if he was about to strike Tayuya. She whimpered and tried to scramble away from Kai. He threw his fist at her in unexplainable rage letting out a vicious war cry. It came up short caught in the mouth of Buster. The red in Kai's eyes began to fade as they returned to normal. When he gazed upon the teary, fearful eyes of Tayuya it brought back painful memories.

*Flashback*

"Kill her!" a snakelike, venom filled voice demanded. Kai was standing over a helpless girl barbed wire wrapped around his entire body, laser eyes sighted in on her heart. Tears welled up in her fearful eyes. Kai had his bow equipped with an arrow notched and pulled back to his ear. It was aimed straight where his eyes were staring. For some reason some inner force stayed his hand preventing him from releasing the glowing red arrow, and with it the young girl's life.

"Let go of those damn feelings of yours Kai!" Orochimaru growled. Kai showed no intention of obliging so Orochimaru simply shook his head in disappointment. "Fine, then. Another perk to that mark is my ability to control you," Orochimaru cackled. Kai felt an incredible surge in his power and then a loss of control over his body. Insurmountable rage assumed complete control of his mind. Kai released the arrow and the girl screamed.

*End Flashback*

"Please don't hit me," Tayuya begged crying and clutching Kai's feet, "I am so sorry master. It won't happen again I promise, just please don't hurt me." The girl at Kai's feet was experiencing her own flashback.

*Flashback*

Tayuya clutched the legs of her master, Orochimaru.

"What did I tell you about failure, Tayuya?" Orochimaru asked in rage. Her failure this time was simply making his coffee wrong but that didn't matter to the snake sanin. Failure was failure. Maybe she had made the coffee right actually and maybe he just wanted to beat her again? Suddenly Orochimaru smiled, he didn't really care.

"Pain retains you whore," Orochimaru cackled and began smacking the five year old scarlet haired girl. He beat her and beat her until she could feel the end of her life mere inches away… Again… When Orochimaru was finished he left a bloody sobbing mess on the ground. Tayuya sobbed realizing she would lose consciousness soon. Her last wandering thoughts were about Kabuto. Would he find her and heal her again or maybe just leave her there to finally die?

*End Flashback*

Tayuya clutched Kai's legs still only wearing his oversized shirt. Tears streamed down her face.

"Please stop beating me master," Tayuya begged to Kai who in her mind was Orochimaru. Kai suddenly overwhelmed with grief shook the bull dog's death grip from his hand and collapsing to his knees in front of Tayuya's whimpering form. She struggled against him as he gathered her up into his arms. Kai squeezed her gently trying to provide some sense of comfort and hopefully bring her back from nightmares he knew all too well.

"Shhh," Kai whispered into Tayuya's ear," It's alright. It's just a nightmare, everything is going to be okay." Tayuya began to calm down as she snapped out of her flashback. Fear still had a death grip on her spine and she all but climbed Kai looking for safety from her memories. Tayuya burst into tears again. "Shhh," Kai soothed picking the scarlet haired girl from the floor. She shivered uncontrollably in his arms, both from fear and the suddenly cold room. Kai wasted no time whisking her away to his bedroom and the bed she had spent all of her time in for the past month. Kai wrapped her slender body in a thick warm blanket.

"You know I made this blanket from the fur of the very wolves who tried to make you into dinner?" Kai commented softly trying to take her mind away from her memories. This did nothing to stop her tears.

"I failed him," Tayuya sobbed into Kai's chest, "I am nothing more than a worthless fucking cunt." More tears seemed to streak her face. She had spent more tears in front of Kai then she had in front of anyone except for maybe Orochimaru during his beatings.

"No Tayuya, you are not worthless. That is just Orochimaru's brainwashing doing the talking. You have to try to forget about him Tayuya, he is straight evil, and he obviously forgot about you. I wouldn't consider that a bad thing either," Kai soothed running his hand through her soft hair. Tayuya's gut flipped and flopped giving her the same feeling one would get from falling from a great height.

"Kai?" Tayuya asked. Kai locked his eyes to her deep brown eyes. "Promise me you won't let him hurt me." Tayuya looked so helpless folded up in his arms. Kai knew what she was feeling. Failure, betrayal, and the overwhelming fear of what her evil master would do to her when he found her.

"I promise," Kai vowed. As Tayuya stared into his blue-yellow eyes, she found a sense of understanding there she couldn't place and for some reason it brought her comfort, enough to stop the tears falling from her eyes. "Look you need some rest. You're still weak from your incident and have already overwhelmed yourself enough today," Kai explained laying her down on the bed, more or less tucking her in the same way he had been tucking her in for the past month. He finished with expertise and stood up looking down on her face. Tayuya's lip quivered and she started shivering again. She couldn't explain it but somehow she felt safer and warmer when Kai was there holding her. Kai had turned and was already to the door about to leave Tayuya in peace.

"Hey shithead," Tayuya called. Kai stopped and looked over his shoulder at the scarlet haired kunoichi. "Look, it's not that I am scared or anything. It's just really cold and I was wondering if you would mind sleeping in here with me tonight."

"Not scared only cold?" Kai asked raising an eyebrow.

"Fuck," Tayuya cursed under her breath. She knew better than try too fool someone else who had obviously also had a lot of contact with her former master. Orochimaru taught her everything she knew and likely everything Kai knew as well. Including but not limited to lying. "Fine I am scared! Is that what you wanted to hear? You know what? Forget it! Just leave you fucking asshole, I don't care," Tayuya screamed rolling over so her back was facing the door. She was so mad, and felt so helpless at the same time. Suddenly the mattress shifted under her as weight was added. A strange warmth and calm flooded her body as she felt an arm touch her shoulder turning her over to face Kai. The broad shouldered man wrapped an arm around her when she was facing him and brought her close. Tayuya impulsively snuggled as deep as she could into Kai's body. There she found a sense of warmth, security, and a will to resist she couldn't imagine existing anywhere else. Soon Tayuya's eyelids grew heavy because, exhaustion weighed them down and overpowered her mind.

A/N: Another chapter down and another one coming soon. Not to mention a fan already! Please leave comments :)