Chapter 16 Sensei

I rubbed my shoulders as I ran down the hallways, it was really cold. Was the heater broken or something? It must've almost been winter time by now. Last time we traveled it was near the end of fall. I reached the dojo door and reached to open it but hesitated when I heard the sound of someone's kiai. I slid the door open slowly and peeked inside. Inside Sasuke was training with a wooden dummy, striking it with both his fists and feet. He wore no shirt, no shirt, just his black sweats. Sasuke wasn't what you would call muscular. His arms were fit but his whole upper body had a slim look to it. He didn't have one of those overrated six-packs, the skin on his chest and stomach was pulled tight but not in a sickly sense. You could barley tell he had abs at all. While I watched him he attacked the wooden dummy constantly but he stopped abruptly, and breathed out slowly.

"You want something?" He asked with out turning to me.

I opened the door and stepped into the dojo. "You called for me didn't you?"

"Oh, Yeah." He said as he stooped down to grab his water bottle.

Sasuke took a swig and turned to me. Despite the cold, he had worked up quite a sweat, his hair even sagged a bit. He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand and took another breath that manifested in front of his face.

"Orochimaru wants me to train you." He said casually.

"What? Why for?"

Sasuke took another drink. "He's says despite your stubbornness he still wants you to work for him."

"Geez, I'm not the one that's stubborn." I mumbled.

"After seeing our battle about a week ago," He continued, ignoring me. "he decided he wants to keep you up to shape, so I'm gonna teach you some new stuff and shit."

"Whatever, I don't need to be trained by you!" I snapped.

"You really don't like me do you?"

"No!"

"I really don't care but do you really think continuing to train with Mizuko will help you shape up?"

He had a point. I had been training with Mizuko for the last year and we were basically on equal ground. I knew how she operated and vise versa. The progress of our growth with one another had come to a halt. I debated.

"Fine." I gave in. "I'll let you train me but not for Orochimaru!"

"Heh." For the first time, I saw Sasuke crack a smile.

I stared.

"What?"

"I've never seen you smile." I said and a smile spread across my own face. "It's actually kind of nice."

"What do you mean?"

"It's you." I explained. "It's a smile that's honest in the sense of showing your character. It's true to you. Maybe, just maybe, I could get along with you."

Sasuke's face changed. His usual blank expression shifted slightly to what almost looked like… surprise?

"What? What is it?" I asked.

"No, it's nothing." He said and turned away.

Sasuke tossed me a boken and picked up one for himself. He brushed the bangs that had plastered themselves to his face away.

"Koi!*" He barked.

I charged.

(*Okay, I honestly don't know if that's how you correctly spell the romanji for "come" in Japanese. As far as I know he's talking about the fish XD)

Thus my training began. Sasuke just kept me on the basics at first, pointing out what I needed work on and every now and then he would teach me a new move. Eventually, as his training with Orochimaru progressed he began to teach me some of that too. One day, when I asked about his quick growth and he admitted to the use of drugs during his training, given to him by Kabuto.

"But that's like cheating!" I said.

"Yeah, but I need to get strong as soon as possible." Sasuke said.

"But…"

"Maybe I could get you some if you want?" He offered.

"No way!" I protested. "If I'm gonna get stronger it's through my own natural methods!"

"I figured as much."

Despite the way I had felt about him at first, I slowly began to warm up to Sasuke. He was just really distant and I had to remember the hurt he had gone through. We both carried huge wounds in our heart. At first I thought we just handled it differently but the more I thought about it, the more I realized we also handled it the same. He wasn't a bad person, I saw a lot of good in him but he hid most of it away. I wondered if it had to do with where he had come from, I noticed he never talked about his life in Konoha.

My once boring schedule had quickly changed. I practiced with Ekima, then went to train. Some days I could only do one because Orochimaru took me in for the tests. Days began to pass much quicker.

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Four months since my training with Sasuke have passed. My skills have grown greatly since then. But I was still no match for Sasuke, the stupid druggie. Today I had been called in for experiments and missed my training. Orochimaru had taken some blood samples, which this felt like the hundredth time, and then knocked me out. When I woke up Kabuto was healing my arm, which looked like it had been cut open, while Orochimaru, once again, took some blood samples from my neck. Orochimaru eventually left and I was left on the table in my sweats. Kabuto began to heal my back while I covered myself with my tank top. I felt a third hand on my back.

"Where'd you get that from?" Sasuke's voice asked.

I jumped slightly, caught off guard by his sudden appearance.

"Don't move, Karasu-san." Kabuto said sternly.

"When did you get here?" I asked Sasuke, looking over my shoulder.

"While you were still knocked out."

"Wait! While I was-" I stuttered and felt my face go red. "Did you see me-"

"Not really." Sasuke cut in.

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"So, where'd you get the scar?" He asked again, changing the subject.

I had learned quickly that when Sasuke changed the subject it was pointless to get it back on track. I sighed. I could lie but maybe if I opened up a bit to Sasuke, he would do the same for me.

"My father gave it to me." I confessed.

Both Kabuto and Sasuke were silent. I'm sure Kabuto knew the story.

"Why?" Sasuke asked plainly.

"My father beat me as a kid." I explained. "A lot of times it was for no reason. One day he came home, he had failed a mission and was in a terrible mood. Everyone knew to stay out of his way on these kind of day but when one of my brothers asked me to go get some tea, I ran out across the mansion and slipped on the floor right in front of my father. He had barley retuned home, so he grabbed me by the hair and dragged me out side. I've learned not to protest and usually things go a lot better. He pulled out the bamboo rod and began to yell at me." I continued my story with a straight face. " I got angry and made the mistake of talking back. I was rewarded with a one strike in which my father put all his strength into. I tore open my back pretty bad. I don't remember much but, to this day, it was the most painful wound I have ever experienced. My nanny knew medical ninjutsu and often healed the wounds my father gave me but this time he ordered her not to tend it so I could forever remember my place. And that's how I got it."

Again there was silence between the three of us.

"You lived in a mansion?" Sasuke asked.

I laughed. The fact that after everything I had just told him, he was curious about where I lived struck my as funny.

"Yeah. The Satsugai clan has always been one of the noble families of Sunagakure."

"There." Kabuto said. "Your all good."

I smiled back at him. "Thanks."

I jumped off the table and turned to Sasuke.

"You've been here for a while so we don't have much time for training." Sasuke explained. "But there's still a couple things I'd like to show you."

"Kabuto, have you been monitoring our base hidden between Kusa no kuni and Taki no kuni?" Orochimaru asked, appearing out of nowhere as he often did.

"Not recently, why?" Kabuto responded.

" I haven't received any reports from there recently."

"What are you suggesting?" Kabuto asked as he adjusted his glasses.

Orochimaru turned to Sasuke and me. An amused smile spread across his face. "Would you like an assignment, Karasu-hime?"

Author notes: And the plot thickens! Argh, chapters haven't been that long lately. Oh well, I could milk it but I believe a chapter shouldn't have more information than necessary. Anyways, some more time passage in this chap. I could have described some of the training exercises and such but I didn't find it necessary. Actual, I enjoyed this chapter, even threw in some fan service, heh heh heh. As I said ealier, things are gonna move a bit quicker now.