Disclaimer: See every other previous chapter .

Ghost of Love: Chapter Seventeen

Orochimaru pulled away, removing his hand from its light resting place against her throat, and eyed her with vague confusion, distracted from his new discovery.

"When have I ever glowed, my dear?"

Sakura hesitated. He doesn't know that he glows? That seems unlikely. "Ah… sometimes you do. Yesterday, when you found me outside this room, you were glowing."

"I suspect that I may have noticed if I were glowing, sweet Sakura."

"Well, evidently you didn't," she huffed.

"Perhaps you are the only one who sees this mysterious glow?"

Sakura hesitated, nodding slowly. "But why? Why would I be the only one able to see it?"

"Overactive imagination? Hallucination brought on by being infested with the spirits of dozens of dead ninja? Some strange infatuation..?"

That hit way too close to home. "Ugh, I don't think so," she pushed away from the wall, stepping out of range of the looming snake sannin. He shrugged and sent her a knowing smirk.

"Well, what is different about you specifically, my sweet? You made a deal with the collective malevolent spirit of an entire clan of damned shinobi- that certainly sets you apart."

"I guess…" She eyed him mistrustfully, crossing her arms protectively.

"You said I sometimes glow- have you noticed a pattern? Is there any particular time, some unique circumstance that brings about this… oddity."

Sakura sighed, "Not that I've noticed- just, sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. It changes in intensity, too. The first night I arrived here, when your – minions – brought me to you, you were almost painful to look at," she hesitated, thinking. "Actually, you were almost that bright yesterday, too."

A slow, lazy smirk drew its way over his face as he nodded condescendingly "…and what did those two situations have in common?"

Sakura blinked, distracted by his abruptly re-acquired smugness, and frowned at him disapprovingly as she put her mind back to the task at hand. Obviously he had figured it out and was now waiting for her to catch up. In common… me, him, Matsumori chakra… lots of Matsumori chakra. Oh. Huh. "Both times the chakra was at its peak?" she guessed. "So… the stronger the chakra the more visible the glow, then? That means- you always glow, but no one else can see it, so the fact that I can is probably because…" she frowned intently, struggling to follow the thread of this particular theory to its conclusion. "Because the ability to see it is an attribute of the Matsumori chakra… maybe it was the clan's bloodline limit- they could see… auras? Chakra levels?"

Orochimaru nodded, "That is one theory. The most likely I have come up with so far, though we will have to put it to the test to be certain."

That's… kind of awesome. I wonder if I could get better at seeing chakra auras, or whatever, if I practiced? A thrill of excitement shot through Sakura as she contemplated this potential new ability- learning new things had always been enjoyable for her and this was something completely new.

"Let's continue your lesson, shall we?" Orochimaru drawled, snapping her out of her contemplation with swift round kick to the head- which she promptly dodged, thanks to his exaggerated telegraphing of the move.

Pff… I thought this lesson was to teach me to always be on my guard? His body language screamed what he was planning then- which I'm seriously thankful for, otherwise I'd have a nice concussion right now.

They quickly fell into the rhythm of sparring, with Sakura dodging like hell and trying to get in a sneaky strike here and there, while Orochimaru used her for target practice.

At least this will make me that much harder to hit, I guess!

Once Orochimaru grew bored of chasing his pink-haired student around the training room, he called their lesson to an end, sending her on her way with a dismissive flick of his hand.

For her part, Sakura was very glad to be finished with the day's training; her legs shook from the exertion, and the constant bursts of speed required to dodge the snake sannin's blisteringly fast attacks had drained nearly all of her chakra. In short, she was exhausted, which was pretty much the status quo for her after a session with Orochimaru.

Despite her depleted physical state, though, she was very eager to explore the vast network of tunnels which spread beneath the sound compound; rumour had it there were thousands of scrolls down there, all full of fascinating jutsu and information on the many and varied kekkei genkai possessed by the shinobi clans. I just hope there's something down there about the Matsumori clan's bloodline trait- if they actually had one. I guess this could be something else entirely… No point speculating about it, though, I'll just have to wait and see.

But first, a shower.

A/N: Wow. I'm so, so sorry you guys! I completely lost inspiration for this for so freaking long I'd kind of given up on ever continuing it- then I got a boxset of the entire Naruto collection and -bam- my muse was restored XD

Thankyou for being so patient with me; I know how annoying it is when an author stops updating. No excuses here, just an extremely lethargic muse.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter- if it hadn't been for all of your encouragement I doubt this would have ever been continued -shameface-

As always, let me know of any mistakes, inconsistencies, and whatnot =) - Savari