Later that day Mika was making her way up the stone steps to where the Hokage was yet again waiting for her, clearly to talk about the events of the early afternoon. She sighed as she contemplated the wooden door in front of her, the white paint looked fairly new and there was a certain telltale freshness about it. She took a deep breath, biting her lower lip apprehensively and knocked three times, hearing the deep voice from within calling her to enter.

She went and stood where she had the day before in the middle of the room, her hands behind her back and her eyes stuck to the ground. She heard a certain amount of paper rustling and two voices whispering frenetically, trying not to let her hear them but the small inaudible voices were just as bad as though they had been speaking normally.

'So, Mika Tikaake.' came the Hokage's deep voice as he looked up at the nervous girl, he cleared his throat a little when she didn't look up. 'Your powers are very impressive. You defeated those two chuunin with relative ease, didn't you?' she looked up uncertainly, this was not news to her and she knew he was just trying to be polite.

'I wouldn't say "ease", sir.' she answered quietly when noone spoke, glancing tentatively from the Hokage to the man beside him who was not the same man as the day before: This man looked a lot more rugged, with several scars adorning his blank face as he gazed at her steadily.

'But you defeated them.' he repeated nodding his head slowly. 'For a girl of nearly thirteen to defeat, not only one but two chuunin is not often witnessed in this village.' he told her with his eyes fixed on a spot a few inches in front of her feet while the man beside him scrutinised the young girl's nervous face which slowly became defiant. 'Mika, do you know just how powerful you actually are? Do you know the extent of your talents?' he asked, finally getting to the point and looking up at her rebellious face, her eyes narrowed suspiciously. He entwined his fingers and placed his chin on the knuckles gently and passed his eyes over her expression.

'My powers?' she repeated, unwilling to help them. She didn't know why she didn't want to be helpful, maybe it was the fear in their eyes which they were desperately trying to hide from her. 'Why? I have control over them. You are in no danger.' she finished, hoping to sound patronising.

'Oh, aren't we?' asked the scarred man sitting beside the leader of the village, looking straight at the young girl with a hard look which told her that she shouldn't be messing with him but she ignored it. 'Can you prove that?'

'Ignorant fool…' came the silky voice in the girls head making her screw her eyes up, trying to shut it out. But it was right… she agreed with the voice in her mind.

'I was born in this village.' she told him now openly glaring at them both, affronted that they should think that she would bring harm to the Village she knew and loved. 'I am faithful to-'

'Can you prove that?' asked the man again, cutting across her sentence and making her grit her teeth in frustration. 'Tikaake Mika, you are one of the most powerful shinobi in the village at this time, and we cannot be too sure of whether you-' But she didn't hear the rest. She was listening to the voice in her mind.

'What does he know?' came the enthralling male voice, making perfect sense to the girl with the plum coloured hair. 'Has he ever been through what you have? Does he know what it's like to constantly feel everything around him?' How did he know? How did he know exactly what she was going through?

'So?' came the man's voice as he stood up, towering above the thirteen year old girl who continued to glare up at him defiantly as though challenging him. 'What are you going to do?' he asked leaning forwards on the table in front of him, forcing him to bend over and move and inch or so closer to the girl. She sneered in disgust at his patronising tone.

'You are worth more than this.' said the voice slowly in a low whisper which made Mika feel slightly ruthless. 'You don't need this kind of harassment.'

'Do you want me to leave?' she asked trying hard to get the poisonous tone Sakura had used on her about three and a half weeks ago and was content with the result. 'Even though that would considerably weaken your already pathetic village.' she continued, perfectly aware that she was contradicting herself as she did so, but she didn't care. 'Without even a single member of the Tikaake clan this village is considerably weaker than it's neighbours, and you know it.' She watched the two older men bristle at the sound of their precious village being insulted, she smiled in satisfaction. The voice inside Mika's head chuckled, giving her even more of a sense of pride in what she had said.

'I thought you were faithful to this village.' said the man with the scars, clearly getting angry. Mika watched as the Hokage put a hand on the other mans forearm, trying to calm him slightly.

'Calm yourself, Ibiki.' he said quietly, looking down at the arm his hand was gently resting on. The mean man who was still standing glanced down at the Hokage briefly before looking back at the defiant young girl who continued to glare straight back at him. There was a long pause in which Mika was expected to apologize to them for her insolence, but she wasn't about to say she didn't mean what she had said. Because that would have been a lie.

'I'm not going to lie.' said the man who was still glowering at the girl, closing his eyes in frustration and letting his chin press against his chin. 'I don't like the look in the girls eyes.' he continued as though she wasn't there, opening his eyes and gazing at the older man steadily. Mika's fingernails bit into the leather of her black gloves as her fists twitched furiously.

'Foolish peasant.' came the enthralling voice in Mika's mind, almost pushing her to lose her temper but she held on. 'How dare he speak as though you weren't even there.'

'I believe she is not to be trusted.' continued the man named Ibiki, still not looking at the girl but simply gazing at the Hokage who was still staring down at the table. 'That look in her eyes, the fire in her soul cannot be doused-'

'And why would you want to douse it?' asked the older man and the young girl in unison, glaring up at the scarred man who glanced from one to the other with an incredulous expression. The Hokage sighed.

'You may go, Mika.' he said quietly looking back down at his entwined fingers sadly, as though someone very close to him had just said something very hurtful but he didn't want to make them feel bad about it because he felt too much for them.

'Why?' she asked defiantly still frowning up at the two men. 'What's the point?' she continued her voice rising dangerously. 'Why leave when you can just talk about me behind my back and I'll find out from someone else? Why can't you just tell me your feelings now? To my face?' tears of frustration and anger welling up behind her deep hazel eyes.

'How dare you talk to the Hokage like that?!?' shouted the scarred man his temper suddenly flaring up as he bellowed at the girl, a vein in his disfigured temple pulsating.

'How dare he talk to you like that?' came the familiar voice in Mika's mind, edging her on.

'I dare to talk to him like that because he dares to dismiss me when we're not finished!' she bellowed, her fists still clenched painfully by her sides and the tears beginning to cloud up her vision.

'YOU ARE A SIMPLE GIRL!!!! WHAT GOOD DO EXPECT TO DO?!?!?!?' bellowed the man a lot louder than she could ever shout, suddenly looking very dangerous to her and making her stop trying to out-shout him because she saw how stupid it was to try. She stood in silence, her chest heaving with the tears which were now rolling down her flushed cheeks as she tried to keep her face defiant while it cracked with the tears.

'Go, Mika.' came the Hokage's voice from beneath his large hat which was now hiding his whole face, the only part of his visible was his left hand which was gripping the hat down before his face.

Mika felt betrayed for some reason. She had believed the Hokage to be a good man, someone on her side, but the way he had just dismissed her in such disdain made her think otherwise. She made her way to the door, her chest heaving with the silent tears now streaming down her face and dropping on the wooden floor between her feet as she glanced back while the door closed. In the last fleeting glimpse she got of the room she could have sworn she saw the Hokage's face red with miserable tears seeping down his wrinkled cheeks.

'What does he have to weep for?' came the familiar silky male voice Mika had grown strangely fond of. 'He has power and he controls what people do, and yet he has the gall to weep at a simple fight which did not even concern him.' She sniffed as she walked along the deserted side street, her left hand clutching her right elbow as she stared at where her feet were leading her. She found a hidden corner behind the see-saw and crouched down in the shadow of the children's game, her knees pressing up against her chest as she hid her face between them, her shoulders shaking as she tried to stifle the tears. Her right hand was locked around her left wrist as she tried to pull her legs closer to her body, trying to hide her self pity as she continued to weep bitterly into the fabric of her leggings. 'It's alright…' Mika heard the smooth voice saying soothingly, comforting her in her moment. 'I'm here for you, Mika.'

'Wh-who are y-you?' she choked without looking up as the tears continued to spill out of her deep brown eyes her, her plum coloured hair falling down across her knees and shoulders. 'How- how do you know m-me?' she added, still trying to stifle the powerful sobs which were shuddering her small body.

'My name is Orochimaru,' came the friendly voice soothingly as the young girl began to calm down slightly and wiped her wet cheek with the back of her gloved hand, making sure the piece of steel didn't scratch her. 'and there are not many people who have not heard of you, but they have heard only of your power.' he continued in a friendly voice which made the girl feel strangely safe. 'But I saw past the intense power that you wield.'

'W-what did you… you see?' asked the girl looking up curiously from her position curled up behind the see-saw, sniffing a little as she looked around in benign inquisitiveness.

'I saw a young girl in pain.' he told her quietly, the compassion audible in his silky voice. Mika's eyes began to water again as she thought of how he was the only one who had seen her pain; her agony; she hid her face in her knees again. Suddenly she felt as though a tender hand was stroking her back affectionately, trying to comfort her in her pain. She looked up to see who it was and found that noone was there, and yet she could still feel the friendly touch as it went up and down her shoulder blades. 'Don't be scared, Mika. I would never hurt you.'

'I know.' she answered, calming down at the reassuring thought that her new friend would be there for her… at least for a while. 'Thank- thank you.' she added, realising how impolite she must have been earlier.

'You never have to thank me for anything.' he told her kindly, sounding somehow closer than he had previously. 'You would never have to ask for anything either.' he added so quietly Mika wondered how she heard. And for some reason she automatically knew he was talking about her and Sasuke's "relationship".

Suddenly she felt something soft and friendly on her right arm, gently pulling it away from it's grip and out to her side before the hand was picked up to shoulder height. Mika watched in surprise as her hand was picked up by thin air beside her and was pressed against a pair of non existent lips somewhere just above shoulder height, her stunning eyes wide in awe but she didn't object. She felt the invisible pair of lips slowly edge up her arm until they were kissing her shoulder amorously, and she thought she saw a whisper of a man there looking up at her with golden eyes and white skin, gazing deep into her eyes and silently telling her that he adored her, that he would never let her get hurt. Mika watched as the whisper of his face faded again into nothingness and the pressure of the invisible lips disappeared, leaving her arms to fall back to her side while her face gradually went back to normal, if a little confused.

'Mika?' came another anxious voice on the other side of the see-saw. She looked over her shoulder, hoping her face wasn't too red and puffy from the tears, and saw Sasuke looking around for her fretfully. 'Someone said they saw you running this way.' he continued, still not finding her.

'Sasuke…?' she whimpered, lifting herself up a little so that he could see her behind the children's play thing. She watched him spin around and set eyes on her tear stricken face and saw his face become soft and worried.

'I'm so sorry…' he said quickly making his way over to her behind the wooden apparatus. He swiftly took her in his arms and pressed her to him adoringly, trying to mentally take away all her pain. 'I had to-'

'See someone…' she finished for him letting herself sink into his strong arms, taking all the affection she could. '…I know.'

'I'm so sorry.' he said quietly and holding her closer to him. 'I'll make it up to you… I promise.' Neither of them knew how he would ever make it up to her and part of Mika believed he wouldn't, but in that moment all she wanted was something familiar to show her affection.

Okay, well I'd like to apologize to everyone for the unusually long delay in puttint this chapter up. It's just I've haven't been able to connect my laptop to the internet because my dad's been on my back for various reasons. Anywho, here's the next chapter and hope to get another one up soon!

I'd like to thank my two most loyal readers Lonely-Kitty and Freakageek (sorry I don't know quite how to write either of those!)