Kosuke's POV:

I could feel her chakra. I was close, so close!

But as I got closer, something about the chakra bugged me. It was different. I knew it was her's, there was no question in my mind. It was a mixture of both her and Ookami's chakra, and I coud feel Ookami's pulsing and flaring up every now and then, as if he wanted to get out but couldn't.

I frowned. Why hadn't Amaya let Ookami out? I mean, then she could have at least caused some trouble for these people. But as we drew farther and farhter in, everything was quiet. Nobody seemed to be worried at all.

We hid in the woods a little ways off from the main building where Amaya was kept. We all looked at the map on last time, making sure that we knew what we were going to do. We had decided to split up into three groups. Hachi and Riku were going to wait outside, letting us know if anyone came by. Naruto and Sakura were going to wait at the beginning of the hall, keeping watch there. And Kakashi and I were going to go to the room that was labeled as Amaya's.

We all looked at each other, nodded, and moved.

We snuck to the building, and Hachi and Riku hid near the enterance as the rest of us snuck inside. I was surprised that there weren't many people walking around, but was thankful for it.

We got to the hallway, and split up. Kakashi and I ran silently down, until we reached the door that was supposed to be to Amaya's room. Very quietly, with my heart beating just about as loud and as fast as it could go, I opened the door...

To find an empty room.

Shit! Where the hell is she? I wondered, looking around. Kakashi was looking around also, and all of a sudden he tensed up. He twisted around and shot two kunai out.

Two figures dodged the kunai easily, and I heard, "What the hell?!"

Wait...Amaya!

"Amaya?" I asked quietly.

"Who did you think it was?!" she replied, moving out of the shadows so that I could see her easily. With her was Sasuke.

"What the hell are you doing here Kosuke?!" she would have screamed if she hadn't have been talking quietly.

"I'm saving you! You wanted help; here it is," I replied.

"But not from you! This place is the absolute worst place you could possibly be!! What if he sees you?!" Amaya hush-yelled at me.

"You needed help, and I came. It's what I do Amaya! You are my best friend! There is no way I was going to stay in Konoha while knowing that that snake had you!" I hush-yelled back.

"I thought you were supposed to be smart!!" she threw back at me.

"I thought you were supposed to be too tough to ever lose a fight!" I threw back at her.

"Um, ladies, this is a very interesting conversation and everything, but I think it might be best if we were to leave. Now!" Kakashi told us, grabbing my arm and tugging a little.

"And what the hell are you doing here?" Amaya asked Kakashi, poison practically dripping from her words.

"I'm here to get you away from here. And I'm here to apologize to you. I know I was a terrible parent. I was never ready for it. I'm sorry," he told her, and her eyes practically popped out of her head.

"So what, do you expect me to just say 'Oh it's all right Mom, I forgive you for nearly sixteen years of home-hell?' Cause I don't plan to," she told him.

"No, I don't expect you to forgive me. Not for a long time. But right now we need to get out of here! Before Orochimaru finds us!" he said, and began tugging my arm again.

I saw Amaya raise her eyebrows, looking from Kakashi to me.

"What?!" I asked her.

"You two seem to be kinda friendly all of a sudden," she said to me.

"We're not, we've just been thrown together since you left," I told her, and glared at her. She gave me her "what did I do?" look, and I just rolled my eyes.

Sasuke had just been watching all of this quietly, but then he turned to Amaya and said, "You don't have to leave, you know. Orochimaru-sensei does actually know many powerful justsus, and with the curse mark you are now even more powerful."

I stared at Amaya in shock, and she looked at Sasuke like "did you have to say that?"

"He-he gave you the curse mark..." I whispered, horrorfied.

Kakashi had gone still also, and I knew he was terrified by this news as well.

Amaya looked away, but then back at me.

"Yeah. This morning," she said quietly.

"C-can I see it?" I asked, hoping that it wouldn't really be there.

She paused for a moment, but then moved the collar of her shirt over so that I could see it. I walked up to her slowly, but I could see it the entire time. It looked exactly like Sasuke's, except it was in a slightly different place, and it had a large tear in it. Amaya had obviously cut at it in rebellion. Seeing that marking that was permanently on her reminded me of all the ones that were on me, and given by the same man.

When I looked back up at Amaya's face there was an emotion there that I had never seen before on her face. Was it...defeat? Had she really let these people break her.

"Amaya," I said quietly, and then threw my arms around her, trying to give her a comforting hug. I knew that she wasn't really a hug kind of person, but I knew that she needed some sort of friendly contact. After a minute or so she kinda tapped my back, attempting to hug back.

Soon I pulled back, and she seemed to be a bit better. I tried to smile at her, and she kind of smiled back. She turned to Sasuke with her old determined expression on her face and told him, "There is no way in freakin' hell that I am staying here. I think I love you, but I will not stay here."

Sasuke frowned slightly, and I sighed inwardly. Only Amaya could profess her love for someone quite like that.

Then he nodded.

"Okay," he said, "Then I'm coming with you."

I was kinda surprised at this, Amaya didn't seem to be, and Kakashi was keeping all of his emotions concerning his daughter and her love life hidden from his face.

"All right, now that we've all made these wonderful declarations, can we go?" he asked.

Amaya and Sasuke nodded at the same time, and I just looked ahead. We all began moving quickly down the hall, where we once again met up with Naruto and Sakura. Both of them looked shocked when they saw Sasuke with us, and I think Naruto might have been about to attack when Kakashi turned to him ad said, "Not now. We'll explain everything later. For now, I think he's on our side."

Naruto nodded to his sensei, but he still looked suspicious and even a little hurt. Sakura looked about the same as Naruto.

The six of us ran out of the building, still going as quietly as possible. We met Hachi and Riku out where we had left them, and headed back for the trees.

We were just about there when a kunai shot out from behind us. We were all able to dodge, but we sped up running. I turned back to see who was chasing us, and saw a young man a few years older than I was, who had gray hair and a pair of glasses perched on his nose.

I began running faster, but when I turned back around I came to a dead halt. There, standing in front of me about 50 yards away was him. My eyes widened as they met the pair of yellow green ones that were staring right at me, and my heartbeat all but stopped.

Orochimaru...

Amaya's POV

I snarled before stepping in front of Kosuke, my fear and hatred of this man was quenched by the overpowering need to protect my friend.

"What the hell are you doing?" Kosuke hissed at me.

I didn't look back at her, "I'm not letting him get a hold of you again Kosuke. I've realized he's hurt you more than I have, if possible, and I don't want you to go through that again. Besides," I grinned my wolf grin at her, my golden eyes closed. "Maybe if I kick his ass for you, you might forgive me."

I didn't give her time to reply, instead I jumped ahead, towards the pale bastard. I heard Kosuke and Kakashi turn around and go after Kabuto, Sakura and Naruto went for the other goons, but I couldn't hear Sasuke. My attention was pulled back at my own fight when two snakes came hurtling at me. I jumped backwards, off the branch I was currently on, I grabbed the same branch with my hands and flipped myself onto the branch again when the snakes had passed.

I tried to let some of Ookami's chakra, but the pulse of the damn mark on my neck stopped me real fast. I cursed, so if I tried to use Ookami's chakra, the curse mark would be activated. I was on my own on the one. Thankfully, I did know how to take care of myself.

I waited for another bunch of snakes to come after me, I jumped down off the branch again, making it look like I was using the same move. Instead, I landed on my feet on the ground, where as a shadow clone flipped up and stood where I was on the branch. I smirked, heading to the left to go around.

I waited, Orochimaru's right side right in front of me. I smirked when he had his attention on my clone and sending more of his damn snakes. When he did, I sprang. My feet clipping him in the shoulder enough to knock him out of the trees. I jumped back down, meeting Orochimaru at the ground.

As soon as my feet hit the ground he sprang at me, I faltered a step, backing up. But my eyes widened when Orochimaru was sent sprawling to my right. I turned to see Sasuke also land in front of me. I was speechless for a moment, but nodded at him and returned to the fight. Orochimaru and made it back to the tops of the trees, snarled and jumped up as well.

I jumped at him, kunai in hand, he managed to dodge the kunai but I elbowed him in the face. He faltered a step backwards because of the blow, but I struck my foot out to trip him back on the ground. Instead he grabbed my foot and twisted my into the air, he went to hit me, but my hands grabbed his hand and I used that to push my self farther into the air out of his reach. I grabbed a branch above me and flipped myself onto it.

I sat down, breathing heavily. I had to finish this real fast, with out Ookami's chakra I can't hold out much longer. I smiled, flexing my arms, they hurt already. I struggled to think of a way to kill him, after all, he's a Sanin. It would take a lot more than I was giving out.

I stood, wondering if I had enough chakra to do this. I closed my eyes, doing hand sings that were fast enough that even Sasuke's Sharingan would have a hard time coping them. After I was done, with my eyes still closed I tried to pinpoint Orochimaru's exact location by his chakra signatures. I growled, I couldn't do it. Kosuke and Kakashi were too close to where Orochimaru was hiding. And with this large rang hit, I could seriously hurt them. I would have to get him into a more isolated area before I tried to do it again.

I sighed, releasing the jutsu before actually using it. I jumped back onto the ground, where I had seen Sasuke's chakra. He was there, waiting for a signal or sign that I was in danger or needed help. I walked over to him, "Sasuke, let me use some of your kunai. He took all mine."

Sasuke didn't ask any questions, just handed me the kunai. I took it, but it took a few minutes before he let go, wondering if he should let me handle it on my own. When he did let go I rolled my eyes with a smile before jumping into the tree tops again. I wrapped and explosive tag around each of the kunai.

When I got close enough to Orochimaru, I chucked one of them in the direction he was in. I missed on purpose, lodging the kunai into a tree. It exploded and Orochimaru made sure to move to another spot before he was hit. I smirked, I was leading him away from everyone with explosives. When Orochimaru was far enough away, I stopped throwing them, pocketing the remaining kunai.

I searched around for the other chakra, Kosuke and Kakashi were far enough away to the right so they wouldn't be hit. Naruto and Sakura were way behind us, and Sasuke was behind me, out of my sight, but I'm sure I was in his. I closed my eyes again, doing the hands signs once more. I took in a deep breath before letting it all out in a scream.

Banshee Scream Jutsu, my own invention that I am very proud of. It's a wailing scream that sends out sonic waves that are strong enough to blow out peoples ear drums that are a mile away, as long as their in the radius. But it would have more of an effect on Orochimaru, who wasn't even a few yards away.

After I stopped, I started swaying, really dizzy. I fell backwards off the branch, only to be caught by Sasuke. He looked down at me worried, "Are you okay?'

I smiled, trying to focus my eyes again. "Yeah. I'm just seeing two of you right now." He rolled his eyes at me before sitting me on the ground, back leaning against a tree trunk.

"Stay here," he told me, heading off in the direction Orochimaru was in.

"Yup, cause you know me. I'm gonna go have a party!" I hollered after him, attempting to stand. It worked, when the dizziness passed. Sasuke came back with Orochimaru's body.

"He's not dead, but he's down and out for a while," Sasuke told me, setting his body on the ground before me.

I looked up at him, I could tell he was disappointed. He had hoped to learn new jutsus from this man. I sighed, "Absorb his power."

"What?" he asked, looking at me.

I took a deep breath, "Absorb his power. It's what you want." At first he wasn't sure what to do, but then he nodded. I nodded back before turning to the right, headed to see Kosuke and Kakashi. When I got there the two were breathing heavy, but Kabuto was on the ground, dead. A hole through his chest where Kakashi must have run him through with the Chidori.

"Go and bring the body to Sasuke, he has Orochimaru. I'm going to help Naruto and Sakura bring the bodies of the others. We'll burn them, that way their power won't be able to get in the wrong hands." they nodded at me, and I couldn't help but smile. The relief and pressure that was taken off Kosuke's face when I said that Sasuke had Orochimaru, I couldn't help but smile.

After I had brought the other bodies with Naruto and Sakura, we pilled the bodies up. Sasuke used a fire jutsu to light them. He didn't seem any different after he absorbed the power, but the feeling of his chakra was greater than usual. It was dark by the time we had finished cleaning up the remains.

We decided to camp here, and tomorrow we would head back to Konoha. I shuddered at the thought, but Kosuke reassured me it would be okay. Yeah, I thought, As long as Ibiki don't kill me. As Anko's student I knew what I had to go through when I got back.

Kosuke, Sakura, and I went out to get water and fish while the boys got fire wood. When we returned the boys had a fire going and were sitting around, Naruto was talking to Sasuke while Kakashi was cutting sticks with a kunai to put the fish on. All in all we had caught thirteen fish, more than enough for the six of us.

After we had eaten we all just sat around the fire, the air getting colder with ever passing moment. Naruto had curled up with his jacket and fell asleep as soon as his eyes closed. Sakura had leaned against the tree and would be out soon enough, so the only ones who were really at the fire were, Kosuke, Sasuke, Kakashi, and I.

Kosuke sat closer to Kakashi and leaned into him, he looked at her like she was crazy. "Shut-up, I'm cold." Was all she said, and Kakashi didn't really seemed to care. I rolled my eyes, Yeah Kosuke, you "just got thrown together", huh? I thought with a smirk. I rubbed my eyes, I was getting pretty sleepy.

We left the fire going, we slept close to it for it's warmth. Kosuke was still curled close to Kakashi, and he didn't seem to mind. I couldn't help but to roll my eyes at them again, but I did it with a smile. I lay still, head propped up on my arm, eyes closed. I shivered, even though I was close to the fire, I was still cold. I was not a warm person, it took a lot to keep me warm. Kosuke was the same way, that was why she stole Kakashi's body warmth.

I tried to ignore the cold, and instead I thought about a....pillow! Damn I wish I had a pillow! I sighed, it's not like I packed one. Oh yes, I think I'll pack this pillow from the inn, you know, just in case I'm captured. My thoughts were interrupted when an arm slipped around my waist and a body spooned around my back.

I turned my head to see Sasuke burry his head in my hair. I shivered, not because of the cold, but because of his breath on my neck. I turned around and instead buried my face in the crook of his neck. "Your warm," I murmured, already falling asleep. He only chuckled and wrapped his arms around me, but by that time I was pretty much out of it.