Family Reunion

I traveled with Orochimaru and his subordinates for about two days, before we reached our destination. Orochimaru asked me to fly us on a fast dragon, which I applied to his wishes, but only because I wanted to leave quickly, also. We arrived in a forest on a mountain range (man, I was getting really tired of all the mountains) in a moderately sized, dilapidated building. But, Guru and Pakuno didn't follow us in. Apparantely, they weren't allowed. I felt uneasy as Orochimaru led me inside the dark building. I couldn't see, but I could hear. There were squishy, bubbling sounds, and the sound of someone's breath. As we reached the end of wherever we were, I saw a faint light coming from torches that were placed on the pillars around us. I saw, there, a young man with white hair and glasses. He looked like a total dork. "Welcome, Sarafu-sama," he said as he bowed his head.

-sama?

"Sarafu-sama?" I heard a deep voice say from the shadows as a young boy stepped out. I don't know whether it was his tired looking face or the scars on him, but something about this boy made me feel extreme pity. He had short, dark blue hair and deep black eyes. You could just barely see that he had once been handsome, but the dark scowl on his face hid all beautiful face features.

"Sasuke," Orochimaru smiled. "Are you jealous? Afraid that I have chosen a new body?"

The one named Sasuke just kintted his eyebrows. "Ch!"

I crossed my arms. I was feeling cold. The hair on the back of my neck was standing up. My animal intuition was telling me to get the hell out of there. But there wasn't anyway for me to just leave. I was in Orochimaru's grasp now. I turned on him. "Stop your fooling around! Show me to my mother, like you promised!"

He bowed his head mockingly. "Of course, my beloved daughter. I just can't wait to see your face when we have our sweet family reunion!"

I had a great urge to spit in his face, but I knew that would get me nowhere. Orochimaru led me into another room, but this one was lit up more than the previous one. I found out that this light came from glowing tubes lined in rows along the walls. The tubes were filled with strange green liquid, and something else: bodies. They had masks and wires all around them, that I couldn't tell whether they were living or dead.

"W-Wha...What are these?"

"Oh, just little experiments I've been doing in my spare time. You're mother is on the very end."

My blood boiled. "Is she an experiment, too?"

"Oh, no. That was the only way to contain her. She likes to revert to her 'other' form."

I glared at him just before proceeding down the hall, making sure not to look to the side. When I reached the end of the room, I looked up at one of the green tubes. Inside there, was a thin, young woman with long white hair. Since she was naked, you could see the ribs and all the bones in her body. She literally seemed skin and bones. I screamed as I fell backward. My eyes were large and tears streamed my face. "W-wha...mmm...sh-she's..."

"Yes, well. We couldn't exactly take care of her with her Dragon form coming out all the time. I kept her alive, though. Just for you. Just so we could all come back together, as a family."

My shaking hands closed into fists. My open mouth closed into gritting teeth. My wide eyes grew small as I glared. I could feel the Dragon blood in me pumping through my veins. "What have you done to her?!" My power began to rise as white chakra lashed out from my body and even broke open one tube.

Orochimaru made no movement.

"You!!" I turned on him as fangs began to grow back into my teeth. I could feel the glowing blue from my eyes as they changed color. Wings ripped out of my back as my blood spattered everywhere, and even burned Sasuke, who had gotten in the way. I roared. "YOU!!! YOU DESTROYED HER SMILE!!! I'M GOING TO EAT YOU!!!" I charged at Orochimaru with my growing claws, he simply restrained me with massive anacondas that slithered out from his sleeve. I roared again, as my hair grew longer.

The white-haired dork seemed startled by my appearance. "I see. So she's not like the other monsters."

Orochimaru turned to the dark-haired boy. "Sasuke, I would like for you to fight this girl. And use you're Sharingan." Sasuke looked at him just before his eyes turned red.

What was he planning to do? Why did he tell him to use the Sharingan? Then I remembered all of my encounters with Hinako. He means to steal my techniques!! I calmed down as my eyes reverted back to their original gold, and my fangs and claws disappeared. I kept my wings out though. I stepped back a little.

So this is why Orochimaru wanted me alive. Mother is obviously too weak for him to seep anything out of, and you can't steal techniques from a dead person. I need to get out of here somehow. I bit my thumb and summoned Takuro. His large body broke open the building. I hopped on him, but was welcomed by a trail of flame. I just barely escaped with singed elbows. I looked to my left and saw that Sasuke wasn't going to let me get away so easily. I, then ordered Takuro to fill the place full of water. Orochimaru made his own little bubble, as the Sasuke and the white-haired dork just stood on top. Once I had jumped onto Takuro's back, he tried to fly off, but a snake was wrapped around his wings, folding them closed. I looked over to find Sasuke with his hand on the rim of the water.

So, he summoned the snake. Looks like I'll have to get away myself. I flapped my silver wings as I launched into the air. Sasuke fire balls at me, and I dodged them all, but with great strain. My wings were taking up more space than I was used to. I was going to get hit, eventually. So I formed some hand seals and said, "Sky technique, Light Rays!" I opened my mouth and shot out a bright beam of light toward Sasuke. But he had formed the hand seals at the same time, and had countered my beam with his own. I cut mine off as I flew to the side.

It's no use! No matter what I do, he'll just do the same thing back at me. There's no way for me to escape. I couldn't even hide in Mirage of the Moons. Looks like I'll have to do something he can't copy.

I landed on a tree and began the long procedure of forming hand seals. Sasuke took no time to wait, but shot his beam out at me. I blocked it with my wings, which aren't invincible, so they were torn up. I gritted my teeth from the pain, but continued on. When I had finally finished, I whipped out a scroll and opened it up. "Kuchiyose no jutsu! Twin Dragon Swords!" With a great explosion, the swords appeared and I grasped them firmly. I had summoned Life and Death. Orochimaru smiled. I had a feeling I was playing right into his hands, but there was no way Sasuke could do this, even if he used his sharingan.

I shot down towards Sasuke and sliced with Death. He dodged and shot a fireball out at me. I deflected it with Life and pheonixes formed from the flames and attacked Sasuke. He fought them off with a kunai. Since they were made of fire, they did not disperse, until he froze them with an ice technique. By then, I was already by his side with my sword and attacking him with Death. He dodged each one, and tried to block one with a kunai, which just crumbled into ashes. When he leapt farther away, I shoved Life into the ground and the limbs of trees would snap at him, and one of them even wrapped around his leg. He cut it with a knife and used another fire technique to burn my trees. I scowled.

If he keeps using that annoying Fire jutsu, I won't get anywhere. I need to figure out some way for him to not use it. But how?

I ran towards Sasuke and waved Life in the air, yelling "Ice!" Ice grew from the water vapor in the air and shot towards Sasuke, who in turn blocked most of them with balls of flame. I growled. If he shoots out another fireball, I'm going burn him! I rubbed Life and Death together to create a great wave of flame that shot off. It was unavoidable. Sasuke formed the same seals and shot out a continuous flow of flame to the oncoming wall of flame, thus causing a rift in my wave. Sasuke was the only thing that didn't get burned. He was really beginning to annoy me. I spun around in the air to create a tornado and kicked it off towards Sasuke. I kneeled down and formed some seals. I didn't see what jutsu he did, because my tornado was in the way, and had collided into him. When the wind finally died out, I found a large snake coiled up.

"AAARGH!!!" I yelled in frustration. "I'M GOING TO SHRED YOU INTO PIECES!!!"

I dashed towards him, enraged, and immeadiatly sliced the snake into shreds. It wasn't much of a threat, but while I was hacking the serpent in my anger, Sasuke was behind me and his hand was glowing. I gasped.

The whole time he must have been forming seals and prepareing for this!! He was purposely trying to irritate me so I would leave openings. I have to block it!

I lifted Life in the way, but not fast enough. "CHIDORI!!" Before I knew it, I had a hole in my chest, with Sasuke's arm in it. There was blood everywhere. My blood. Sasuke fell back in pain as steam arose from his burning. He let out a loud cry as he curled up on the ground. He had been hit, full-force, with my blood. He must've been in hell. I wasn't doing so swell, either. My knees had buckled and I was coughing up blood, which spilt onto the ground. I tried to use healing techniques to recover my wounds, but I wasn't a medical ninja. All I did was waste chakra. I shakily reached for Life, just as Orochimaru was coming my way.

Crap! I need to get out of here now!

I was only able to grab one of the bells, just before Takuro flew me away in his mouth. The last thing I remembered was the faint image of the one thing that gave me the will to go on, my mother's only smile.

...to be continued.