Curses of My Father

Chapter 2 – The Early Years

"No no no Athena you need to focus or else you will never be able to use your chakra right." Orochimaru yelled at his 7 year old daughter. She had been doing basic training for a little over a year and now he was working on her focus for chakra control.

"But daddy I wanna go swimming, can't I train later?" she whined at him.

"No! Now focus your chakra and get it together." Orochimaru said glaring at her.

Athena frowned but began focusing her chakra which she then placed in her feet so that she could try to climb up the tree. She made it about half way up before she fell this time whereas before she hadn't been able to get off the ground. She looked to her father for approval but only saw his scowl so she got up and tried focusing again before climbing higher and higher until she reached the top of the tree.

When she landed in front of him Orochimaru looked pleased. "You've been a good girl; now try to build up as much of your chakra as possible. Soon I will be teaching you different types of jutsu." He said to the child who was beginning to feel that he was being less her father and more her sensei only.

"Can I take a break daddy? Just to eat, I will go swimming later." Athena asked him with hopeful eyes.

"I suppose you can have some lunch but after that it's back to training." He said heading inside with her to make them something to eat.

Athena sighed, she didn't like training this much but she knew that she was going to make her father proud if she kept it up and she wanted to make him proud very much. She sat down after washing her hands and face and then watched as Orochimaru placed a sandwich with some veggies down in front of her.

Athena sighed, she hated vegetables but she ate them because her father told her to and she didn't like getting on his bad side. She had gotten him angry at her once and she had ended up really upset, he had hit her and locked her in a room in the basement for the whole day. It smelled funny down there and she swore she could hear people calling for help, since that day she vowed never to anger him again.

"So today I am going to teach you how to make shadow clones." Orochimaru said to her as they ate.

"But daddy I'm not even making normal clones yet." She replied with a frowning face.

"You can do a few attempts for normal clones but I want to see you master shadow clones by the end of next month." He stated firmly. Athena could only nod her head to him, she dared not defy him.

After they finished eating she went outside and began trying to make a clone, after about 30 tries she managed to make not one but two perfect clones. Orochimaru was pleased and then began instructing her in how to make shadow clones; he had great plans for her.

Athena after paying full attention to Orochimaru began attempting to make shadow clones, however this time it didn't seem to matter how many times she tried she was unable to make more than a simple clone. After 3 hours of trying Orochimaru took her inside and in a fit of unnecessary rage threw her in a room in the basement again and left her there until dinner.

At dinner all he did was glare at her and it made Athena feel very uncomfortable. She knew she hadn't done anything wrong; she had done exactly as he had asked her to. She had tried her best to make even one shadow clone but she had failed at it. "Daddy am I in trouble? Why did you put me in the bad room?" she asked after gathering her courage.

"No you are not technically in trouble but I need you to focus on your jutsu. You have to become strong so that you can fight alongside daddy." Orochimaru replied.

"But daddy shadow clones are something that is Jonin level, I'm only 7." She said in her defense.

"I'm just trying to test out how strong you will be, you are the daughter of a legendary Sannin after all." Orochimaru replied, he had known all along that she wouldn't be able to produce a shadow clone but he had wanted to test her out anyways. His real reasoning for locking her in the room was so that he wouldn't injure her too badly in his rage that what he had hoped hadn't worked out.

Athena looked confused but nodded anyways as she finished eating her dinner. She wasn't sure why she would need to fight when they lived peacefully on Demon Island but she would trust her father. After all he was all that she had and she really had no reason to question him, he had never lied to her before, or so she thought anyways.

Ah the blissful ignorance of a child. Always forgiven for not knowing what was going on, what was going to happen and who they should actually trust.

AN: Sorry this one is so short, been pretty busy. Hopefully future chapters will be longer.