Sasuke and I arrive at Lord Orchimaru's base the next day. Yes, I now address him as 'Lord.' I am his bitch now, so I might as well. The base was hidden in a bunch of rocks, how clever. When we enter the base, we're greeted by a smirking Kabuto.

"Ah, nice to see you again, Popori Ikame," He says to me.

I bow politely and mutter, "The pleasure is all mine, Kabuto-senpai."

He snickers, "Such formalities! Just call me Kabuto, if you would."

I nod, bowing once more, "Of course."

Kabuto tells us to follow him, and we oblige. Walking down the stony hallways, I etch the layout of the base into my mind. The base is very dark and damp. Lit only by torches hung up every so often down each side of the hall.

When we reach our destination, I can feel the snake's chakra flowing in the room. I bow like the grunt I am to become and kneel with my head still bowed. Sasuke makes a disgusted sound, like he doesn't enjoy the way I'm acting all of a sudden.

"Well well well," Lord Orochimaru hisses. "If it isn't my dear Popori come at last. I didn't even have to send out for you this time. Did you come on your own accord?"

"She came because I wanted her to, remember?" Sasuke sneers.

"Remember who you're talking to, boy," Kabuto warns.

Sasuke glares at the four-eyed ninja. Lord Orochimaru snickers, "Because you wanted her to, you say? How interesting. So she is, you'd say, a pawn of yours?"

Sasuke glares at the snake. "I suppose."

My Lord makes a delighted sound, like a baby's gurgling of spit. "Well, then, I think we should test her abilities now, shouldn't we Kabuto."

"Of course, My Lord," Kabuto responds with a devilish grin on his face while Sasuke makes a repulsed face.

The snake-like man snickers, "Then let the games begin."

I've been placed in an arena like room. The walls are high and a balcony surrounds it. There are four doors leading out of the room, but I have a feeling that things will be coming out rather than in. My Lord, Kabuto and Sasuke each stand at the edge of the balcony, watching me. Both Kabuto and Lord Orochimaru look delighted to get to see me fight. Sasuke has a combination of boredom, and masked concern on his face. He knows that I can take care of myself, but he hates that I'm being put through this. And on the other hand, he has supposed to have broken all bonds between him and everyone else. He told me last night that he didn't think of me as a bond, but a lifeline. A lifeline that is going to be essential when he goes to kill his brother, Itachi.

So I stand here, waiting for anything that the snake and his accomplise might have in store for me. All four doors open at once, each releasing one minion. From the looks of it, they are all fighters of different variety. Two long-range, one mid-range, and one short-range. Oh, fun fun for me! I let my self show the slightest of emotion - a smirk.

All of my attackers advance at the same time. The short-range rushing straight at me. I quickly take out one of my custom-made bombs, and lob it in the middle of them all. While they all scatter, trying to get cover, I take out the short-range, snapping his neck mercilessly. The mid-range throws a paper bomb kunai at me. I deflect it, sending it soaring back at him. He is obviously surprised, because he lets out a startled gasp. As the kunai peirces his chest, I give him one last wink as he blows up.

Now for the long-range. I power up my kekke genkai, my hands flying as fast as they can to perform the hand signs. I mutter a chant under my breath then punch the ground. This sends lightning surging towards both of my opponents. They attempt to dodge my attack, but fail to notice both of my clones behind them. Both clones punch through each of the enemy's chests then kicks the dying body off of them.

I check each of the opponents to see if they're still alive, then look up to My Lord. He's smiling sinisterly down at me. Kabuto claps beside him. Sasuke just stares blankly down at me. I climb the wall with ease then bow to My Lord.

"That was quite entertaining," He purrs. "You have proven yourself to be strong, dear Popori."

"What about her loyalty, My Lord?" Kabuto asks.

"She will not betray her close friend, Kabuto," Lord Orochimaru notes. "They have been through to much together for her to just throw it away." He snickers. "Show Popori her new room, will you Kabuto?"

"Of course, My Lord," Kabuto smirks.

Kabuto starts to head down the hallway. Before I follow him, I give My Lord one last bow then turn on my heel and follow after the gray-haired shinobi of the Sound. Sasuke follows behind us and when Kabuto indicates which one is mine, Sasuke enters the room before me. I thank Kabuto then head inside my new room.

When I close the door, Sasuke turns to me, "What the hell is wrong with you? You're way overdoing it! There is no need to bow to that snake every five seconds." He growls at me.

I blink, "Was that a bit too thick? I apologize, I don't know how to act in these kinds of situations. But I can't start acting differently, they'll know."

Sasuke glares at the floor, "It's disgusting enough for me to have to deal with the snake and his lap dog, but having to watch you walk around like a brainwashed minion is sickening. You're right, you can't act differently now. I'll have to do something. Act like I own you or something, and everytime you start acting all repulsive, I'll punish you."

I stare at him, "Define punish. . ."

He sighs, "I mean scold you, I'm not going to abuse you. Just yell at you a bit."

I roll my eyes, "That won't get annoying at all."

"How do you think I felt watching you act like that?" Sasuke hisses at me.

I sigh, "Alright, but if you go too far with it, I'll bite back."

He smirks at me, "Understood."

And with that he stands and leaves my room, probably to go train with our Lord. I emerge from my room and spot someone staring at me. A boy, about a year older than me, with light purple chin-lenght hair and glowing green eyes meets my gaze. As soon as our eyes meet, he seems to flinch and then looks away for a moment. When he looks back at me, he introduces himself.

"Hello, you must be a new recruit or something," He says with a voice that was made to sound in control. "My name is Kai Aoki. I hail from The Mist village."

When he speaks to me, I can tell that he is admiring my body. He looks me up and down and a smirk plays on his lips every so often. I stare at him blankly then walk off. He is of no interest to me. He won't help with my goal, so I don't have any business conversing with him.

"Hey!" He calls after me, "It's rude to not speak when spoken to!"

I continue ignoring him, then go to see if I can find a workshop to make a weapon I've been planning. I manage to find an empty room. I enter then get to work on gathering all the things I will need. I sit down and start my construction on my weapon. I've been working for a good two hours when I hear someone approaching me. It's the boy, Kai, from earlier. I ignore him some more. He needs to get the clue that I'm not interested in anything that is involving him.

"What are you making?" He asks me.

I ignore his comment as I finish up. I pull my handmade weapon up off of the table I made and shine it in the light. The glint of metal makes me feel accomplished. It has a handle and an arch with multiple serrations. The handle extends out and is tiped with a sharp edge. It looks like a common stealth knife, but if you would study closer you would find many unusual things about it. Like the point on the end is removable and can extend even more when I will it to. The arch can move and bend. In short, I can shape it to make any weapon I feel like.

"See Oricha, Gontei," I mutter to myself. "It works."

I can feel the weird stare I get from the boy, but I ignore it completely like everything else he throws at me. Sasuke emerges from the training area and comes into he room. I smirk at him, holding up my weapon and he stares in return. I can see the Kai boy looking between the two of us. He looks at me with envy, and Sasuke with hatred. I wonder what Sasuke did to him?

I get up and say to my long-time friend, "You are in need of a sword, Sasuke-kun. I'll fetch you one." I leave the two of them alone.

~Kai's POV~

I stare after the beauty when she leaves me and the spawn of the devil alone. Oh, how I dispise Sasuke Uchiha. He thinks he's so much better than everyone, but more importantly, he thinks he's better than me! And that is just unacceptable. He even has the nerve to talk down to the snake! I mean, I hate the guy too, but if I talked to him that way, Kabuto would have my head. But Sasuke just gets a warning each time. It's friggin annoying as hell!

When the girl is unable to hear me I turn to Sasuke and ask, "How do you know her?"

He stares at me with that, 'how dare you look at me?' look. Like I said, really damn annoying. "I have known Popori my whole life."

I blink in surprise, "Really? So, you two are like, friends? Weird, I didn't think you were capable of making friends. Always thought you were a selfish dickhead." I smirk.

Metal presses agaisnt my neck and I gasp in surprise. Popori has appeared behind me and is holding the sword she was fetching for Sasuke to my neck. Amazing, no one is silent enough for me not to notice. Maybe I was just distracted. Yeah, that's it.

"If I ever, hear you insult Sasuke-kun like that again," She spits with acid, "I won't hesitate to kill you. Someone like you could never understand what Sasuke has gone through in his life. I didn't endure three hard years without him in Konoha to sit by and listen to some ignorant little boy adress him like trash."

My eyes narrow, "Konoha, huh? Gross."

She lowers the sword and tosses it to Sasuke, "Tsk. You're annoying."

I gawk at her. I'm not annoying! Everyone else is annoying! And I am not ignorant! What the hell is up with this girl? She shows up out of nowhere, evades my senses and just ignores me like I don't matter at all. I like her. She makes me feel alive again. Ever since Sasuke got here, no one picks fights with me anymore. They are all scared that they'll wake Sasuke up and then he'll kill 'em.

Well Popori is friends with him, so if she wants to pick a fight, he won't do anything. Plus, she's friggin hot! I mean, look at that bangin' body. She's ignoring me, but I think she's just playing hard to get. It's fine, I like the chase. This day just keeps getting better by the second!

Popori walks over to Sasuke and starts whispering excitedly. She must love weapons or something. She's kind of weird, but the crazy ones are always better in bed. Heh, I'm fantasizing about her body going crazy all over mine when she throws something at my face.

"Hey! What the hell?" I below at her.

"Stop drooling all over everything, you idiot." She sneers at me, tossing another stone in the air and catching it repeatedly; it's like she's taunting me.

My right eye twitches, "And what are you going to do about it?"

Her nostrils flare, like she can't beleive I just said that. "I'll simply rip off your testicles and feed them to you for dinner." She says flatly, still glaring at me.

I blanche, Oh god, I don't even know if she's being serious. I want to challenge her, but at the same time I'm deathly afraid of loosing my manlyhood, so I just shut up.

I watch as she turns, satisfyied with my silence, and faces Sasuke. She whispers something in his ear and he nods. He leaves the room with Popori following close behind. What are those two up to?

AN: alright, so this is chapter 23. Popori has been accepted into Orochimaru's legence, and has a new admirer. His admirance of her will play into the story later, so I'm not making her a maneater or anything . . . Tell me what you think of Kai and what their first mission to proove Popori's loyalty should be!