Hello everybody and welcome back to chapter twenty-six of the Winds of Change! This chapter was rather easy to hammer out, and it's obviously very short, for good reason. A few people have been wondering about Sakura and Tali, so I thought I would divulge some information on them. I enjoyed writing this chapter, it was a lot of fun, and I hope you enjoy it too. So, I present you with chapter 26, of the Winds of Change.
Chapter 26:
Sakura chewed her nails. It was a nervous habit of hers that she had picked up over the course of her capture. It helped calm her nerves. She estimated it was quite late at night, for Tali was snuggled up on her bed. How she remained content she would never know. Sakura studied her.
Tali had still refused to tell her what she was looking for when they snuck out that day. While annoying, and as much as the pinkette pestered, she refused to budge. She pressed her head against the cold stone wall. She was sure that Naruto and Sasuke were coming for her. Absolutely sure. She was their teammate, they wouldn't just leave her. Letting out a puff of air, she resolved to do some stretches.
Her newly found blonde friend had told her straight. She was a rather suckish ninja. One day Tali had simply walked up, and kicked her in the stomach. She stated that Sakura needed to be faster, and that they would train in Taijutsu. She explained she was nowhere near proficient at it, but practice would help both of them. And so they had trained until their bones ached, and they simply couldn't go on any longer. They had toned it down a bit since then, considering they both refused to move for at least twelve or so hours, but it was still exhausting. Tali had explained that morning and nighttime stretches made you much better at Taijutsu, so she did just that. Only five or so minutes of stretching, tops, and she was already a little better at Taijutsu. She was faster, and more agile.
Tali had explained (which she seemed to be doing a lot) that Kunoichi like herself were often trained in more acrobatic Taijutsu. However, being confined to such a small space as a holding cell left much to be desired. So, they mainly focused on twisting their bodies to avoid each others blows.
She stretched for the designated time limit, and clenched her fist. Now what was she supposed to do.
There was a loud piercing knock at the door. Sakura's emerald gaze swept towards the door as it swung open. The man who had kidnapped her stood in the doorway, his clothed eyes boring into her body. "Get the other girl up," he commanded Sakura.
With a hesitant nod, she slowly shook Tali awake. Light blue eyes locked with green, before she turned to the light coming from the doorway, covering her face with her hand. "Five more minutes?"
Joukei was on her faster than Sakura could blink. She was shoved roughly to the side, her lower back hitting her bed. Joukei's hands gripped around Tali's neck, squeezing hard. "Listen here bitch!" he spat, "You're coming with me whether you want too or not!"
Lifting her up by the hair, he deftly punched her in the gut, and threw her over his shoulder. He shot a warning glare towards Sakura, or what she assumed was a warning glare. I'll be coming to collect you soon, too.
And he left, shutting the door and the rays of light off. And slowly, but surely, Sakura's eyes began to close without her body's consent.
Kabuto hummed to himself. Oh, a medics work was never done. The door to the extremely dark room swung open with a loud clang. Joukei walked in, giving the barest of nods towards Kabuto, Tali slung over his shoulder. "Put her down on that table," he commanded. Joukei did as asked, dropping her onto the metallic table none too nicely. He restrained her quickly, before leaving without saying a word.
Kabut tsked. Orochimaru really needed to hire better help these days. And then he remembered this wasn't Orochimaru's operation. He was merely here to help out and act as a diplomat of sorts.
Pulling down on the light switch a dim bulb flickered to life, illuminating the room in a whitish glow. Behind Kabuto was a dark door.
The Sound Nin briskly walked over to Tali. "You can stop feigning unconscious now."
One of Tali's eyes opened. "You're a sharp one."
"Hn," was his reply. "We have things to discuss."
"I'm not telling you anything about Itachi-sensei."
Kabuto's brow quirked. "Are you sure? You could tell me all his secrets, all the ways of beating your little teammates until they can't get up anymore."
They stared defiantly at one another for a few moments, before Kabuto sighed in mock sadness. "Fine, fine. I'll just have to extract the truth from you."
He turned briskly, and walked off. Opening the dark door, he slipped inside of the blackness. The lights went off. Tali could hear something leaking into the room, some gas. She blacked out.
When she awoke, everything was so fuzzy, and weird. The colours of the room changed from purple to orange to green to blue! A voice called out to her, all distorted and deep. "What's your name?"
"Tali." Her voice replied. It wasn't even like it was her voice, like she was watching some girl from afar as the colours danced.
"Excellent. Who is your sensei?"
"Itachi."
The voice hummed. "Good, good. Now, tell me, how would you take down the tall girl on your team. Kura, isn't it?"
Tali went to answer, but she forcefully stopped herself. No! She couldn't reveal information about her team, not now! Not when they were so close! She needed to change the subject, tell the truth about something, anything.
"I'm scared," her voice was timid and quiet, but it was hers. "I'm not confident, I'm not. I don't know if sensei will be able to rescue me, to beat the Akatsuki. I don't know if I ever will get out of this place. If I'll ever see the sunlight, or feel the rain, or snow." She was slowly reducing to tears. "Every night when Sakura sleeps I cry. I'm scared, I can't look after her. I can barely look after myself. I try to be confident, but..." she sobbed quietly.
This continued for another twenty minutes, with the voice constantly asking her questions. She never replied, and just kept crying. And, before she knew it, there was darkness.
Kabuto sighed in frustration. His questions had not gotten through to her. Instead she had latched onto her fear. Part of him wanted to break her more, make her a quivering wreck for the rest of her days. He had work to do, though, and she would be dead soon enough.
He was rather impressed for how well his special gas worked. By combining hallucinogens and a special truth telling serem, it allowed anybody to extract information out of their subject. While a few kinks needed to be worked out, he was sure Tali had undergone psychological training from Itachi to rebuff these kinds of things. He smiled. As Joukei entered the room, and slung Tali over his shoulder, he began to hum. Tali may have had training, but Sakura certainly wouldn't have.
Sakura awoke strapped to a metal table, arms and legs restrained, a dim light bulb flickering. The room was an almost sterile white colour. Kabuto stood before her, his grey hair in it's usual ponytail. He looked positively evil.
"Kabuto?"
"Hello Sakura. How're you today? Doing well?"
"Screw you asshole."
Kabuto chuckled. "My my, what are you, the life and soul of the team. Wait, that's Naruto. Okay, how about the silent enigma. Oh, wait, that's Sasuke. How about the lazy guardian-oh, wait, that's Kakashi, isn't it." He tapped his nose. "Ah, but just wait one more moment, you're the booksmart girl who always needs to be saved. The damsel in distress right?"
Sakura couldn't meet his eyes. The Sound Ninja merely shook his head.
Without warning, he produced a kunai from his sleeve, slashing it across Sakura's leg. She cried out in pain. "Finally, the sound we always hear you make. Pain, suffering, 'I'm not good enough, Sasuke, Naruto, come help me!'"
The kunai is pressed against her cheek. "Y-you can't kill me," she stuttered weekly.
"Oh, I know. I never said about killing you." A small trail of blood rolled down the side of her face. Kabuto, with an evil smirk, pulled the kunai back, slipping it back up his sleeve.
"You're far too valuable to be killed, Miss Haruno. In fact, you are more valuable than you know."
Sakura frowned. She understood this was a trap, a trap in order to lure Naruto and Sasuke here, for some reason. Sasuke she could understand, but Naruto? She just felt like he had to be involved.
"Orochimaru-sama is just as interested in you as he is Naruto and Sasuke. You have a very particular gift, one that we shall unlock, hopefully. But, first, questions. Why don't you tell me all about your teacher and your teammates? All their weaknesses, hm?"
Sakura did the most dignified thing she could think of. She spat at him.
Kabuto's cocky grin soon morphed into an annoyed frown. Wiping the spittle from his glasses, he sighed. "Such a shame, Miss Haruno, such a shame." He violently lashed out with his fist. The crack of her jaw echoed through the room, before her head slumped forward.
Kabuto mentally scolded himself. He had to interrogate her! With a sigh, he turned around and walked through the door that led to the other room. He came back out a moment later, a needle in hand, filled with a thick green liquid. He spent a few moments examining Sakura's arm, cleaning it softly with some cotton wool, before he jabbed the needle into her. He watched as the liquid went into her bloodstream. This would be interesting. The results would vary, of course. She could possibly die. But, she could also possibly live. And two things could come out of that. She could remain normal, and then simply be killed when the time was right. Or, Sakura Haruno could live, and have discovered what lies within her. DNA was a powerful tool. And, in Orochimaru's masterful hands, he could make it into any shape he wanted. And do anything he wanted.
Kabuto smiled at the results of his interrogation. After healing her broken jaw so she could speak, he had filled up the room with truth-telling gas. Now firmly and safely behind the locked one way mirror, he had asked her all manner of questions. And the Leaf Kunoichi answered them easily. He learned everything he could about Sasuke and Naruto's fighting style, as well as Kakashi's. While obviously not the most physical of people, she was very analytically He had over four pages of notes. How Sasuke and Naruto struggled to work together as a cohesive unit, and how Kakashi had yet to teach them anything worthy of note.
"What a good girl you've been, Miss Haruno."
"Woah! I like birds!" Sakura crooned. Kabuto merely shook his head. He watched on with slight concern, however, as her body began spasming. It seemed the serum was already working, good. Her face was contorted with pain, and stayed like that for the longest time, before she finally relaxed. After a few long moments, she whispered, "That was the best swing I've ever been on." And then she burst into loud uproarious laughter.
Good to see she was in such high spirits, despite things.
However, throughout the interrogation she had expressed the need to grow stronger and acquire more power. This peaked Kabuto's curiosity ever so slightly. It would be easier to convince her to join willingly rather than coerce her too.
"One last question. You mentioned that you wanted to be stronger, and faster, and more powerful, correct?"
"Yes! So I can finally catch that cat and strangle it with a tree trunk!"
"Why not join Orochimaru-sama? He can make you far more powerful than you could possibly imagine, Sakura. He would train you to become the most powerful kunoichi in all the Five Great Shinobi Nations.
From his one-way window, Kabuto swore Sakura somehow locked eyes with him. "No. You're pedophile of a master uses power to corrupt and destroy. I will use power to help and protect. I don't want to destroy anybody."
Kabuto laughed mockingly. "How naive. Power always leads to corruption, and corruption leads to destruction-"
And then he saw it. The small, little flower bud that had forced it's way through the cracks where Sakura lay on her table. He smirked. Flowers always grew. And with enough coercion, they also wilted. Orochimaru would do both to Sakura at once. And he would always be there to watch and wait. She had shown signs of possessing something very, very valuable. And he wouldn't let that slip out of his grasp.
And there we go! I don't know if Kabuto is in character or not, but hey ho. Obviously Sakura has something that Orochimaru wants, but what could that be? Perhaps there was another motive for kidnapping her after all...
Honestly not much to say, really. Chapter was easy to write, and flowed well. I'm not entirely happy with it, but who ever is with their work, right? Have a great morning/afternoon/evening/night!