Orochimaru glanced over at the door where someone had just appeared, his ever present frown on his pale forehead as he took in the silhouette watching him silently. The small figure swayed a little, rearranging her weight onto the other hip as she watched her sensei, her long hair completely still in the silence.

'Mika?' he asked a little curious smile appearing on his pitiless face. She raised her left eyebrow and smiled at the older man mischievously but said nothing, giving off the telltale signs of something not human. 'I know this is a clone. You haven't been out of your room for three days, my dear.' he added turning back to the scroll he was inspecting, leaving the clone with an incredulous expression on her perfectly identical to the real Mika.

'Come to my room.' she said firmly , scowling at the pale man in front of her rebelliously. 'I want to talk to you.' Orochimaru looked back over at the young clone, whereupon the figure of the young girl evaporated into the air leaving a small pile of earth at her feet which had previously been used to create her.

'I take it you're feeling better then.' he muttered darkly, turning back to his scroll and wrapping it up again before leaving the room in a few swift strides. After the fight between Kimimaro and Mika both opponents had been badly wounded and confined to their beds, but it seemed the Mika had recovered enough to create a clone with at least one of her powers whereas Kimimaro was still in a minor coma. But the stab wound in Mika's upper stomach wasn't going to go away any time soon, yes it had been helped along by the electricity but it was nowhere near completely healed and the scar was going to stay with the girl for the rest of her life.

He knocked softly on the girls dark door which had previously been a pale brown, waited a moment for her to prepare herself and entered. As he expected she was sitting up in her bed, her pale face completely neutral in the way he had shown her, gazing at him intently as he made his way towards her. The burning mark just below the frills of her top looked particularly painful and was clearly not very comfortable for her because every time she moved she did so gingerly.

'You wanted to see me?' he said smoothly hiding a smile of pride from her as he stood at the foot of her bed, holding the curtain out of the way as they gazed into each others eyes; pride into resentment.

'Did you like my clone?' she asked happily, obviously trying desperately to hide her intense pride and delight… and failing miserably, but for some reason she was endearing to the cold hearted man. 'I did that on my own, without your help.' she was clearly overjoyed at what she had managed to push her powers into doing, despite the obvious flaw which she hadn't noticed.

'Very good.' answered Orochimaru with a proud smile on his chalky face. He didn't know why he was so proud of the young girl, he had had students previously and hadn't been this proud of them even when they accomplished much more important things. 'And in this state! That must have been exhausting.'

'I did it without chakra!' she replied happily, this time her delight was unmistakable as her young and pale face broke into a large grin, her deep hazel eyes beaming up at her sensei who's eyes had also widened in surprise.

'Without chakra?' he repeated, completely blown away by this statement. The girl nodded enthusiastically up at him, her expression that of complete delight. His mind began to spin… she had created an almost perfect clone of herself without the use of chakra… it could speak and move of it's own accord… the possibilities were almost endless- No! They were endless! This girl could do anything she wanted! She could create clones without chakra, therefore save the valuable energy for more complicated jutsus… she needn't even fight if she didn't want to! She could stand on the top of a hill and watch her clones fighting her battles for her, and her chakra would be completely intact… not to mention what she could do without forcing the elements into images of herself… or other things! She could make an earthy replica of almost anything…

'Orochimaru?' came the girl's uncertain voice as though from miles away, curious as to what was going through her sensei's mind. He was curious himself as to how far she could push her power, how much she could actually do. 'What's wrong?' she asked suspiciously, narrowing her deep hazel eyes as she watched his eyes focus on her pretty yet slightly bruised face again.

'You… ah… you must-must stay in bed…' he said quickly, trying to contain his excitement as he glanced back and forth just to be moving. She didn't seem convinced. 'So as to recover faster, my dear! We must continue your training!' She accepted that and lay back down on her large pillow, wincing a little at the pain of her chest wound and giving Orochimaru a sudden urge to hold her against him which disconcerted him greatly. Her expression was so innocent, like a kitten mewing piteously as it has a jab: not understanding why it was going through this pain… not knowing that it was for the best and that it would make it stronger. 'Sleep well my Darling.' he whispered as he bent over at the girl's head, watching her gingerly pull the quilt up over her chest and taking care not to brush her wound. She glanced up at him and their noses brushed delicately, giving both a strong shiver down their backbones and making the snake-like man pull away abruptly and made his way out of the room, closing the door delicately behind him.

She hadn't objected.