They wound through several hallways and up four sets of stairs. Where the heck is her room? Sasuke wondered. He realized with surprise that they were heading for the tower. There are tons of empty rooms all throughout the house. Why would she have the tower of all places?
Tsukiyo finally halted and inserted a key into the lock of a massive, old, oaken door. It swung open and she stepped inside with Sasuke in tow.
Sasuke glanced around with mild interest. He hadn't been in this room before. In fact, he'd never been in the tower before- he'd never had a reason to be there.
The room was dark. That was the best way to describe it. The furniture, the carpet, the walls, they were all dark. Heavy, black draperies covered the large windows at the northern end of the room. Overhead there hung a huge, cast iron chandelier that held dozens of candles. Tsukiyo snapped her fingers and the candles flickered to life. Sasuke realized that they must be in a sitting room of sorts. He could see a door to his left, which he assumed must lead to her bedroom.
Sasuke shivered slightly. The room was freezing!
Tsukiyo led him via his leash, over to a wall, which she attached him to by means of a heavy, iron ring.
Sasuke grit his teeth as he realized that his chain was not long enough to permit him to stand. Thus he was forced to sit, which meant that Tsukiyo was towering over him. Sasuke glanced up to find her scrutinizing him with those hypnotizing eyes of hers. It took all of his will power to tare his eyes away from her intense gaze. He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the ground.
Tsukiyo stood over him, studying him in complete silence for several moments. Finally she spoke in her deep, rich voice. "So… you are a member of the Uchiha clan? That must make you Itachi san's little brother."
Sasuke started at the mention of his older brother's name. His eyes flicked up to her face briefly before lowering to glare at the ground once more."
Tsukiyo smirked. "He was right about one thing. You're not the brightest kid around."
Sasuke growled. "What do you know?! And where did you ever meet Itachi? Cat freak!"
Tsukiyo chuckled. "Hn. Honestly Uchiha, is that anyway to speak to your mistress?" She taunted.
"You are NOT my mistress…!" Sasuke spat.
"Really?" Tsukiyo's eyes glinted with amusement. "Your present state asserts the opposite." Sasuke clenched his fists. "And as to your brother, well he and I have met numerous times. According to him you are uncharacteristically weak and not worthy to be called an Uchiha." She smirked. "And by the looks of you I'd say he's right on!"
Sasuke let loose a shriek of rage and lunged at the haughty cat girl, knocking her off her feet. She executed a handspring and landed right behind him, pressing the palm of her hand to the back of his neck. Sasuke felt a blast of white-hot energy shoot down his spinal cord. He suddenly found himself completely paralyzed, unable to even breath!
His eyes widened in fear. Would she kill him? Tsukiyo stood and walked around to the front of Sasuke, her freezing cold hand moved from the back of his neck to rest upon his forehead, but never lost contact with his skin. She lifted the hair out of his eyes and and gazed at him with her one, visible, cat eye.
"Now Uchiha, let's get a couple of things strait, right now. Number one: I am your mistress; I have complete and absolute power over you. I can harm you or even kill you any time it pleases me. I suggest you remember that. And number two: You will treat me with the respect due me. From this point on you will address me as Mistress. Understood?"
Sasuke, still frozen and dizzy from lack of air, could only stare back at her, petrified. She smirked. "I'll take that as a yes." She folded her right hand into a sign and Sasuke unfroze. He fell to the ground gulping air into his oxygen deprived lungs.
A loud knock reverberated off the old oaken door. Tsukiyo rose and, walking over to the door, opened it a crack and peered out. She had a short conversation with someone before stepping back and flinging the door open all the way.
Kabuto entered and motioned in two sound nin, carrying a metal cage. "Where do you want it?" Kabuto inquired. Tsukiyo pointed to the south wall and the sound nin moved to set the cage down.
A grin spread across Kabuto's face as he noted the red faced Uchiha, slumped on the ground with the leash connecting his neck to the wall.
Kabuto turned to Tsukiyo. "He's been causing you trouble eh?"
She shrugged. "He tried, but I explained the situation to him and I think he understands now." She raised an eyebrow at Sasuke. "Don't you Uchiha?"
Sasuke glared daggers at her. He wanted to kill her; to rip that haughty expression right off of her face, but he couldn't. "Hai, Mistress." He hissed.
Kabuto smirked and gestured to the cage. "Orochimaru Sama said to give this to you for your new slave. He also said to bring Sasuke down to the torture chamber tomorrow and he'd make certain that the he doesn't give you any more trouble." He handed her a silver key.
She nodded. "Give your master my thanks."
Kabuto nodded and left, followed by the two sound nin.
Tsukiyo turned and detached Sasuke's leash from the wall. She gave the leash a sharp jerk, yanking Sasuke to his feet. Using the key Kabuto had given her, she opened the cage door and thrust Sasuke inside with a hard shove that sent him sprawling. Sasuke glanced back over his shoulder just in time to see the cage door slam shut. The key rattled in the lock and Tsukiyo's taunting voice came. "Not so high and mighty now, are you slave?" she smirked. He didn't say anything, but just sat there, glaring at her. Tsukiyo sighed. "Well, I guess I can't blame you too much for being in a bad mood. I suppose I would be too if I were in your predicament. Get a good night sleep. I don't know what Orochimaru had planned for you tomorrow but I'll bet it will be most amusing in my case, and in your case… I'm guessing that it will be somewhere along the lines of "extremely painful"!"
With that she turned and went exited the sitting room by the door, which led to the bedroom.
Sasuke put his hands to his head and massaged his temples. Ugh! This was supposed to be a foolproof plan. How on earth did I wind up as a slave to a freaky cat-girl?!
"Yo! Uchiha!"
Sasuke opened his eyes and raised his head groggily. "Wha?" he mumbled sleepily. What was going on? Who was the purple haired female? What was she doing in his room? Why was she disturbing his sleep? And why did his bed suddenly seem so hard?
Tsukiyo sighed impatiently. "Come on slave, wake up already. Orochimaru is waiting for you down in the torture chamber."
The memory of the previous day hit Sasuke like a mad truck. "He was a slave to the purple haired cat-girl! Well that explained a lot.
"Uchiha!" Tsukiyo snapped irritably. "Do I have to ask Kabuto for a whip? I'm sure he'd get me one." She threatened.
Sasuke glared at her, but picked himself up off of the ground and stepped out of the cage.
She took hold of his leash and yanked on it saying, "Come on!" Sasuke swore under his breath.
He followed her out of the tower and down the twisting halls to Orochimaru's torture chamber.
They entered the dimly lit room and Sasuke glanced around. He had been inside the torture chamber numerous times. But it had always been as a torturer's assistant, never as the victim. Now he saw the room in a new light and realized what all the other countless victims who had entered this room must have felt.
Orochimaru was standing next to an operating table in the middle of the room. "Ah, Tsukiyo. Good to ssssee you my dear. Bring your ssssslave over here."
A chill shot down Sasuke's spine. He felt a tug on his collar and moved numbly to sit on the operating table. It wasn't until the snake-man began to remove Sasuke's already tattered shirt that the boy surfaced from his dazed state. He began to struggle and Orochimaru asked Tsukiyo to paralyze him for a moment. She touched his shoulder and Sasuke froze instantly. Orochimaru and Kabuto quickly strapped him down to the table. Once he was securely fastened down, Tsukiyo deactivated the paralysis. Sasuke watched with wide eyes as Orochimaru took a knife and leaned over him. He bit his lip as the knife made a deep incision in his forehead. As blood flowed freely from the wound, Orochimaru began forming rapid hand signs.
Sasuke felt the cut on his head start to burn. It grew worse and worse, spreading to all parts of his body. The pain increased until Sasuke was screaming in agony. Orochimaru's lips curled into a cruel smile as he watched Sasuke's torment.
Finally, after nearly an hour, the pain began to lessen. Sasuke's screams lowered and he suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him.
Kabuto took a knife and cut through the leather strapps, releasing him from the table. Sasuke rolled off of the table and onto the floor and just lay there for several minutes, too weak to do anything else.
"What was it you did to him?" Tsukiyo inquired to Orochimaru.
"I placccced a ssssspecial sssseal on hissss head. It issss a complicated procedure but, the long and short of it issss, He will no longer have any control over hissss chakura. All of hissss fighting abilitiessss will have dissssappeared, with the exception of hissss Sharingan. Asssside from that, I'm ssssure Sssssassssuke can tell you that the pain alssso sssspread to the resssst of hissss body. I combined the sssseal with a sssstrength-ssssapping agent to weaken him. Even without the usssse of hissss chakura, it would be too dangeroussss for him to remain at hissss regular sssstrength level. Thissss way, he hassss no posssssible way of fighting you or anyone elsssse."
Sasuke touched his forehead and gasped. He could feel the imprint of the seal in his flesh. He will no longer have any control over his chakura… chakura…chakura… His abilities will have disappeared… disappeared… disappeared… He has no possible way of fighting… fighting… fighting… fighting…
Orochimaru's words repeated themselves over and over in Sasuke's head. No! Sasuke thought desperately. If I lose my strength, then I can't defeat Itachi! He can't take away my chakura control… He just can't!
But he had, and there wasn't a thing that Sasuke could do about it. Heck! He could barely even move! He felt a tug on his leash and looked up to see Tsukiyo holding the end of the chain. Sasuke climbed, unsteadily to his feet. He stood for a moment and the swayed and would have collapsed had Kabuto not reached out and caught him. Sasuke had never felt so weak in his entire life. The room around him was spinning wildly.
"Whoa!" Kabuto exclaimed as Sasuke passed out. "How much did you weaken him?"
Orochimaru grinned maliciously. "Perhapssss a little more than necesssssary, but who caressss?"
Kabuto smirked. "Yeah, I guess." Turning to Tsukiyo he said. "If you want to lead the way, I'll carry him to your room.
She nodded. Her face could have been carved out of a statue. It was impassive and completely void of all emotion with the exception of an indecipherable look in her cat-like eye.
She turned and led the way down the hall and up the winding stairs to the tower…
Well? What did everyone think of the second chapter. I know, I'm torturing poor Sasuke. (I sometimes think I can be worse, even than Orochimaru! But I guess that's the trade mark of an author, we all torture characters at one time or another.)
Anyway, reviews are greatly appreciated. (No flames please.)
Oh, and if anyone has an idea for the title of this story, please let me know. I don't like the one it has now but I am at a loss for a better one.
Until next time,
~MidnightAnimeAngel