The stars that night shined brighter than they had for the longest time; like a draught of distant light, their presence was blotted out by an abnormally large system of clouds that were swirling into their night sky. They cleared tonight as if somehow the gods and heavens above were signaling down to her that if she could only pull aside the veil that covered her mind and judgment then the heavens would be hers to grasp. Tayuya looked up and saw all of the eyes of the heavens staring down upon her and the end of her days, and she smirked and shook her head as the Mizukage spoke, her eyes having been pristinely focused upon the redhead in silence for a few moments beforehand.

Chapter 17

"Tayuya, kunoichi of hidden sound… due to your heinous crimes against the Land of Water under the banner of the Nonoko tribe, and those committed by your master against all of humanity; I sentence you to death by noon tomorrow. You will die alone, in a cage, suffocated and drowned… by hanging in a pool of water; the water being like your very presence which suffocates our own. I hope that your life of servitude to the Sannin was worth this ultimate reward." Terumi Mei looked over to Naruto and Chojuro, who were standing with their hands in front of them. She smiled. "It is a happy day today, here, in front of our royals from the capitol and our ambassadors to the Daimyo, and I am happy to see that our very own Chojuro and Naruto were the ones to topple the Nonoko. I am very proud of you; both of you."

Get on with it, you old ass bitch. Tayuya thought, annoyed but not stupid enough to get herself killed tonight rather than give her an entire night to try and escape from whichever confines they place her under. She looked around the large hall, annoyed at all of the satisfied looking grins and pompous smirks that were on the faces of these 'royal' people and the 'ambassadors'. They all looked like trash. One man stood out a bit, but Tayuya couldn't place just why. He was tall and lean, and his smile reminded her of someone; worst of it all, he was staring right at her, and she felt sick to her stomach.

Tayuya looked over to the two young men that the Mizukage spoke of and saw them bowing slightly in recognition to the compliment, but they remained quiet. She was going to turn back to look at the Mizukage when Naruto looked her way. Her glancing eyes slowly came to lock onto his stern, sharp ones. She wasn't sure what exactly was dancing in his eyes, but to her it looked like fire; she remembered one time she spent a night alone in a cave, hiding out away from the freezing rain, and the fire that she lit was the only company that she kept that night, its warmth embracing her, loving her, giving her the sweetest dreams. She wouldn't be fooled, however, because fires could also burn, engulf, and were sometimes even unquenchable to the point that they could devour everything dear and important to her. His eyes flickered, even as she forced herself to look away lest the quivering flame in her chest build up and overtake her.

When the Mizukage dismissed the small gathering of Mizu's top shinobi, Tayuya glanced again and found that Naruto was still looking at her. He only turned away when Chojuro placed a palm upon his shoulder and persuaded him out of his trance.

He nodded at Chojuro and followed him along behind the Mizukage and one of her main body guards, Ao. He was followed by the same woman who had grown in rank recently in Mizu; her name was Ai, and she was a mercenary hired from one of the anti-revolutionists of the area. Her body was wrapped entirely in fishnet with only a tight black top and a slim pair of short shorts that hugged her hips and buttocks firmly. She long ago removed the half-mask and replaced it with purple and white face paint in the shape of tiger lilies with little white dots on the purple pedals; her hair had grown out quite a bit through the years, and her luscious silk curtain draped over the back of her neck in descending ponytails tied meticulously behind her back to take advantage of her smooth hair that fell and dripped like cream but was sturdy like wire; she was a woman who understood the value of utilizing one's bodily charms to accomplish one's goals. Rumor had it that she was a woman of many enemies; those were the wives of all of the men that she has subdued.

There was a big grin on Chojuro's face as they left. Chojuro had his eyes glued to her voluptuous backside as they walked back to the Mizukage's office for some more debriefing and to leave the oblivious redhead to her prison cell and her final meal, permitted due to Naruto's insistence.

Naruto and Chojuro were walking out of the Mizukage's office and Chojuro decided on his own to lead Naruto to where the execution would be held. Naruto thought of the redheaded girl and frowned, telling Chojuro that he wasn't feeling well and headed back to his apartment which he began renting only a few months ago.

Later that evening, Tayuya sat alone on a small bed with a tray full of food sitting by the door to her cell and her hands left unshackled as the cell was occupied by the markings of a chakra suppressing seal; a powerful one at that.

As she sat there, hunger slowly getting the better of her, she closed her eyes and thought of the young blond man and his whiskers and pretty eyes. There were certain things about him that were alluring and other things that made him seem normal; easily attainable, yet forbidden or exotic.

Her hands found their way to the hem of her pants as her breath stilled. She felt no shame; if she were to die tomorrow, then getting off today wouldn't be that bad of an idea. Spending a few hours alone in the dark with bars on all sides (even the ground, she dug through the dirt and checked) ate at one's morale and dignity. Right before she started getting into it, she heard the closing of iron bars as the main entrance to the prison cells opened up. In her mind's eye, she had envisioned Naruto making his way in to free her, or at least take advantage of her and give her a sliver of pleasure before she departed from the world of the living.

"Tayuya. My, my… forever the mischievous girl."

Her eyes widened as if the shinigami himself appeared before her, claiming her soul before its time.

"Orochimaru-sama."

His golden eyes hovered in the background as a knowing smirk crept onto his face like a glowing, slithering worm in the darkness. He said nothing, only walking up to her cage to take a closer look. He saw the plate on the floor, then looked up at her and could tell she was famished. He turned away slowly and nodded his head, showing all of the intent to leave her to her fate.

"Orochimaru-sama! Please! Please, get me out of here! Why come here if only to walk away when I need you the most?" Her hands gripped at the bars fiercely as she shook them, anger making its way onto her face as he continued to walk.

He did not turn around. Tayuya was growing desperate. "I need you!" She cried tears threatening to break at the edges of her eyes as memories of her time with her master flooded through.

He stopped soon after she said that, just before he stepped out the door. He seemed to maul over his options, simply standing there and staring through the front door to the barren prison; very few prisoners were kept in Mizu for longer than a day.

"Foolish child. What you need and want have never been important; I never once asked you what your aspirations were, only that I understood your need to become stronger. That was given, my debt paid and yours only just beginning. I will leave you here, and you will die; you will become the martyr necessary for a proper rebellion by the tribe whose power I placed under your once-capable hands. Even as a martyr, your death and your body will continue to serve my will so long as I please…" He smiled wickedly at her, turning his head just slightly as he crept into the light coming from outside the large room. He turned to leave, but stopped and looked back, saying, "You should ask for some of the local honeypearl leaf to suck on as you are thrown into the depths. Perhaps it will make your time under water less miserable."

His smile slowly disappeared and he brought his hand to his face, changing its appearance as he did so often in front of her before, and stepped out using a powerful henge and realized that he was one of the royals who were visiting from the Land of Water's capitol just beyond its crescent mountain border. The Nonoko tribe was on Mizu's side, while the capitol was nearly secure thanks to the mountainous region and the fact that they had powerful samurai and ninja protecting the place; she had tried to break in once before but was nearly killed. That was when Sakon, a friend of hers, died; his brother, Yakon, someone she couldn't stand in the least, died a few months later.

Tayuya, in despair, dropped to her knees with her hands still on the cage and her eyes lost in the dark as her master left her to die.

After a few minutes, she slowly crawled over to the bed in her cell and began to lie down. She looked up when she heard the cage rattle again at the entrance and this time the two guards walked through with a visitor.

Tayuya looked on wearily as the young blond made his way to her cage. He looked at her first and then her food just lying there waiting for the roaches to come and claim.

"You're lucky there's a fucking cage in between us; I would strangle you and squeeze out your eyeballs for making such short work of me."

He looked at her plate again and reached through the chakra suppressing barrier of the cage and picked up the plate, extending it out to her. "You should eat; you'll need it for tomorrow."

"Why, for when I'm dead? I don't think a last meal will help me any."

"It might make you feel better… who knows, give you a little extra strength in your leg muscles."

Tayuya stared at him quietly for a second before narrowing her eyes. "What are you saying?"

"Just eat, I feel bad enough as it is. I find it hard to believe that you acquired power of that camp all on your own… who put you there? The daimyo? The Mizukage…?"

She smirked, shaking her head, but her spine shivered when she heard him whisper, "Orochimaru?"

"What the hell do you know about him?" She asked, glaring and looking at the plate in his hand. "I'm not going to eat that shit so put it down already or eat it yourself, you asshole."

Naruto let out a drawn out sigh. "Listen, just eat it already, huh? If you do, I'll tell you how I know Orochimaru… it's an interesting story."

She looked him in the eyes and saw a glimpse of that fire from before; it was the warming, loving kind, so she took the plate and began eating the rice and was surprised to find that it was nice and hot, as if it had just been warmed up. She looked at his hand and saw a small flame slowly disappear as he expelled his chakra. What surprised her, the most, was that he was able to use his chakra even though his hand was inside of the chakra suppressing seal!

"How did you do that? I can't use a lick of chakra in here."

Naruto smiled. "It's what an attorney would call a 'loop-hole'. Since I am standing outside, the suppression of chakra does not affect me because my coils are outside of the barrier. My tenketsu cannot be blocked because what this seal does is suppress the molding of chakra in the first place, not plug up tenketsu; since the barrier is not able to reach my center, where my chakra comes from, it has no effect on me. You are standing inside, and it is suppressing your ability to mold chakra, not chakra from entering the seal. Interesting, how these seals work, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess… so, why are you here? You feel sorry that I'm being executed? Why? Because I'm a woman?"

Naruto frowned, "Well, you weren't a part of that clan."

"How do you know that?"

"Your red hair is a dead giveaway: not a single one of the warriors that were there had red hair, and not only that, but they all only had black hair and blue eyes. Your eyes, though they're very pretty, are brown, and it makes you stand out even more than the hair did."

"You're a weird guy… so, why are you here?"

Naruto clamped his mouth shut for a moment and just looked at her. He looked around for a minute and then turned back to look at her. "You are Tayuya of Sound, you said… one of the Sound Four?"

"Yeah… five, actually, but the fifth is a secret."

Narrowing his eyes, Naruto wondered why she felt the need to divulge such information without prompting. "I see… I have a few questions for you."

Tayuya sized him up for a bit and then nodded, "Ok. Go on."

"I know that most of the members of the Sound village are taught techniques that revolve around sound; what skills do you possess?"

"I use sound to call apparitions to fight for me."

Naruto nodded. "Why didn't you use that when we were in Nonoko, or in the hall of the swordsmen?"

Tayuya smirked, "I have a chakra conducting flute that allows me to do this… not that I'm not skilled with my lips," her smirk grew into a knowing smile as she licked them slowly, "but I need my hands freed to mold the chakra necessary for the jutsu."

Naruto took a few seconds to stop gawking to ask the next question, "Where do your loyalties lie?"

Tayuya looked at him. "I can't answer that right now… honestly, it doesn't really matter and I really don't care to try and figure that one out."

"So you're unsure…"

"Yeah, I guess."

Naruto stared at her, quietly, and noticed that she was starting to flush at the face. She finished the plate and set it aside, then sat down and stared up at him. He sat in front of her, his hands on his knees as he looked through the cage at her. "Is something wrong?" He asked, noticing her blushing face. "Are you feeling sick?"

"No, but you walked in right after I was rubbing one out."

Naruto had to keep himself from rolling his eyes. She was aggressive. He didn't know if that would be a good thing or a bad thing, but he knew that she would be helpful to him if he played this out right.

"Too bad." He said, smirking at her.

"It's not too late, you know…" She smiled, pressing up against the cage suddenly with her fingers slowly slipping around the bars as she stared into his eyes in a very eager manner. "I never did finish."

Naruto sat back and said, "I never did tell you how I met Orochimaru." And just like that, Tayuya growled and turned away. He just had to bring up that asshole again.

"Fine, tell me," she said, looking the other way still.

"I met him a few years ago… he abducted me from Konoha."

"That's right, you're Uzumaki Naruto, aren't you? I heard he had picked up Namikaze Naruto from somewhere a little while after he took you to Mist."

"Yeah? I figured you might've known about that. You're one of his underlings, right?"

Tayuya turned her head back to face him and rolled her eyes, "He is the Otokage, isn't he?"

Naruto nodded. "He abducted me and a girl. I bargained with him using a forbidden scroll from the village and offered my life and it as collateral in exchange for her… she uses a technique that allows her to jump from body to body and she took control of me and went back out there to meet him. We both knew that we could not run away, she was the only one with any brains back then. He would've gotten away without a hitch if it wasn't for her… a friend of mine lost his legs, but he might've died that day if she hadn't cut the directions to our location on my arm."

Tayuya arched a brow, "How did that do anything for you?"

Naruto smiled, "When she possesses a body, any damage that is done to that body is also carried over to hers. She sliced up my arm real good, but I heal quickly; I always have. And thanks to her quick thinking, the Hokage got there in time… well, so we thought."

"Orochimaru must've been happy; he is always planning something new to make Konoha suffer for some reason or another. Killing their Kage must've been on his agenda then."

Naruto shook his head. "It's not that easy… Orochimaru may be strong, but old man Sarutobi is on a whole 'nother level. If he were in his prime, I'm sure he would've squashed Orochimaru; like a bug."

"Or like a tiny garden snake…"

They chuckled together. "Anyways, a friend showed up and toasted him with a powerful fire jutsu but he just kept coming after us. The Hokage arrived with my sensei and they attacked, but he didn't try to fight them head on. Instead, he captured me and next thing I know my sensei is fighting against him by himself; my friend suffers a near-fatal accident and I'm stolen away and brought here to Mizu…"

Tayuya smirked, "Rushing with the story, are we?"

"Hah, as if. There's plenty more I can tell you, like how the asshole made me water walk all of the way from the Land of Fire to here," he saw the face of disbelief and shook his head, "You have no idea. Anyways, that's not important. I need to know, do you know if you still know your way to Sound."

Tayuya noticed the way he used his words and nodded slowly. He smiled and stood up, then waved goodbye and walked out.

"What am I doing…?" She asked to herself, lying down on the bed in silence as she tried to get some sleep.

Tayuya's breath was quickening and her heart was beating rapidly as she felt her chakra suppressing cage suddenly fall down into the pit of ice cold water. As the water rose, she took one last gasp of air and screwed her eyes shut as she fell slowly to her doom in silence.

She opened her eyes when she felt her cage rattle just the slightest. The slack at the end of the rope above didn't even move one bit as her cage was turned in the water. A pair of slender arms reached out and took hold of the bars and used a key to open the cage. She noticed there was a large opening deep in the side of the pit and she leapt into it, following the woman, Ai, with the fishnet body wrap as they swam down the long tunnel that was dug into the ground. When they met a wall, Tayuya was surprised, but Ai reached out and the wall suddenly pressed up against her and swallowed her up, and Tayuya tried to swim away only for a hand to reach out and grab her, dragging her through the muddy wall as it proceeded to move down the tunnel to cover up their escape.

When Ai swam up to the ceiling of the small tunnel, Tayuya noticed that she was able to breathe if she pressed her face up past the surface of the water. She followed suit and took a long, desperate gasp of air as her chest shuddered. She took one more deep breath and followed Ai out the exit to another opening that went straight up.

A rope came rolling in from the top and the slack barely reached the surface of the water. Ai reached out for the rope and pulled Tayuya up to grasp it. She blushed when the girl reached down and lifted her from her butt and pushed up on her to get her to grip on tight. She began to climb, but suddenly the rope began to move as she was being pulled up.

When she finally reached the surface, she looked up and saw a hand in front of her. Her eyes met his with a smile adorned on her face as she took his hand.

"Naruto!"

:)

P.S.: I really liked the reviews, thanks guys!