AN: Sorry for the wait guys, I had a bad chronic migraine spell. But I am back and going to continue now. Thank you for all the reviews; they make me smile to know that people enjoy my story. Please keep them up, lol. And now onto the third chapter.

Also side note I may make this into a series with two or three "books" to it depending on how it progresses. There will for sure be this one and I am really thinking of doing a sequel after lol.

Curses of My Father

Chapter 3 – And Now the Journey Begins

Time had passed quickly since Athena began her training with her father; she was now 11 years old and beginning to blossom into a beautiful young woman. She was deadly in her quick wit and fighting strategies, she was also able to call forth summons now. She called forth snakes or sometimes she would call forth other creatures, this pleased Orochimaru to no end.

She was able to create one fully functional shadow clone and was progressing towards multiple clones. She had made so much progress in the past 3 years that Orochimaru now allowed her one day a week to rest or go swimming. Today she was sat under the shade of a tree reading a medical jutsu book. She had an insatiable thirst for knowledge on just about everything, something she had partially inherited from her father.

Her black hair shone like a curtain of silk pulled up into a ponytail, her blue eyes had lightened into an ice blue which was only made more noticeable by the red markings around her eyes. Her skin was pale but smooth and blemish free, she looked almost like an angel even if she wasn't.

Soon Orochimaru planned to start a slow sneaky progression towards the Hidden Leaf village. He had a few other places that he wanted to stop at first to gather a small force of ninjas for the attack he had planned. Athena knew nothing of his plans for the next several months; he didn't want her to begin to have a morality issue.

"Are you enjoying that book?" Orochimaru asked her suddenly standing in front of her. He had a habit of just randomly appearing in front of or behind her. She had slowly grown use to it and now she didn't even startle.

"Yeah I am, it's got a lot of interesting information inside. I don't know how much of it I would actually use but it is always good to have knowledge of many things." Athena replied with a smile.

"Good glad to see you still have a desire for knowledge." He said smirking softly.

"You're weird dad, I love you but you're totally weird." Athena stated simply, preparing to go back to reading.

"We are going to be doing some travelling soon." Orochimaru told her. However, he didn't bother going into further detail about it.

"Ok sounds like fun, it'll be the first time we've gone anywhere but the mainland for supplies." Athena said smiling excitedly.

"Indeed it will be who knows maybe I will even take you back to the village that I grew up in." he said.

"Oh could we daddy! That would just be so cool to see where you grew up." Athena exclaimed.

Orochimaru laughed at her enthusiasm and nodded to her. "Sure so long as you are good on the rest of our travels then I will take you to my old village." He said turning to go inside and begin preparing.

Athena got up and ran inside with him so that she could decide what she was going to bring with her and what she would leave behind. The thought of travelling made her excited; she had always wanted to see the world beyond Demon Island.

They left two days later heading first for the mainland and then they would go on their way toward the Hidden Sound village where Orochimaru already had some followers. Until they reached that village it would just be the two of them, this greatly pleased Athena who still enjoyed spending time with her father.

It was nightfall before they managed to reach Tea Country even though they had left early on in the day. They paid to stay at a local inn at the Port City. Athena went straight to sleep so that they could make another early start; they had a long way to go.

Orochimaru planned to go completely avoid the Fire country instead choosing to go through the Wave and Whirlpool countries before passing through the Hot Springs country and then into the Rice Field country where the Hidden Sound village was. It was a roundabout way to go but it would keep his movements hidden from the leaf ninja which was of great importance to him. He went to sleep after finishing his decision for travel route and both he and his daughter awoke at first light.

Athena hummed as they left the inn and began making their way through Tea country; she was loving all the new sights. She couldn't believe all the things she was seeing that she had never before in her life seen. She'd only ever been to Mother Island and very rarely the port city of Tea country to pick up supplies that Mother Island couldn't provide.

She was thankful for all her training as it had given her the stamina needed for the long days of travel they would be facing until their journey's end. They only stopped for dinner or sleep which meant that they could possibly make it through Tea country within a week.

*5 days later*

Athena stood taking a picture of the border between Tea country and the bottom edge of Fire country. Orochimaru had forgotten that they would need to pass through this small section of Fire country in order to make it to Wave country. Thankfully it was far enough away from Konoha that they wouldn't have to worry about the leaf ninja finding them.

Athena was looking forward to the rest of their journey together; she found that she loved to travel. She enjoyed meeting new people and seeing new places, this was all so exciting to her.

Tomorrow would prove to be the longest day they had so far for Orochimaru had no plans to rest at all within the boundaries of Fire country not even for food or sleep. How will Athena hold up with no rest and no food for however long it will take them to make it through Fire country?

AN: Well that's the end of chapter 3. I hope that you guys enjoy it, I'm going to try to get a start on chapter 4. Also if anyone is confused about the path they are taking look up a world map of the Naruto world and you will see the path I'm taking them on. Also I couldn't find the exact location of Demon Island via the map so I'm assuming that Kika Island is Demon Island. Please review to let me know what you think of the story thus far.