Chapter 24: The Story of Miyuki Obanji Part III

"Again."

Orochimaru's voice was dark and cruel as it snapped out from the darkness and it made me shiver. He didn't sound happy and I knew he had no reason to be. It was pitiful watching the boy before us fight. You would think with six arms he would be better, but he was a mess, unable to beat training dummies. I knew he would die in a real battle and I remembered how before we had wandered into the Northern hideout, Orochimaru had been pleased to see the boy in action, convinced that he would be ready to leave the cave and join the world. Even the boy had been confident but now, he was a defeated, whimpering mess, his body splayed out on the floor, sweat glistening on his body, his breathing heavy.

"Such a disappointment." Orochimaru grumbled, folding his arms and narrowing his eyes at the boy. "Such a setback."

"I've b-been-try-trying." The boy panted. "I've be-been tra-training l-like you said."

"Not hard enough." Orochimaru growled before shooting a look down at me. I flinched at the sharpness in his golden eyes and felt my body tense.

"Take one of them off." He growled.

My eyes widened just as the boy's breath hitched in his throat. I glanced back at the boy, catching the terror in his eyes as he craned his neck to look up at Orochimaru.

"N-n-no!" He begged, but I knew it was too late. He had made up his mind already and there was no going back from that.

"Sens—"

"Do it." Orochimaru snapped, his voice dripping with venom. I flinched at his words and managed a nod.

I had always felt the power back then, floating around just under my skin. All it needed was for me to allow it access. Hearing the intensity in his voice propelled it forward faster and I felt it moving around inside of me, getting faster and faster, becoming harder and harder to keep in.

"Please!" The boy begged, his voice a little firmer. "Please!" Don't!"

I bent over, my arms wrapped around my body as I squeezed my eyes shut and once again felt it burst from my back, the power, the strength that made my knees shake and my head spin. The boy was screaming and I could hear it, the sound of one of his arms being ripped out of its socket. He continued to scream and cry out even a few moments after but once the power retracted back into my body, he stopped and I looked up, feeling as I always did after I used the power. Numb and like a stranger, a stranger in my own body.

The boy was on his side, shivering and shaking, one of his hands gripping his bloody stump of a shoulder, his eyes wide and gray in his skull. There was a small trail of blood from his body to the space between Orochimaru and I and I followed it, my eyes widening when I saw the boy's arm lying between us. It was twitching slightly and I felt myself getting a little sick, but my expression didn't change. I still felt numb, my lips pressed into a tight line as I looked down at the boy. The shock had been in my face for only a brief second before my hardened expression returned.

"Think back to this moment the next time I come to see you fight." Orochimaru said.

The boy said nothing as his body went limp, the blood from his shoulder pooling around him, his face going pale. He wasn't dying, but he was passing out and Orochimaru couldn't care less.

"Make sure to clean this up when you wake." He said, as he turned to leave.

It was one of the only things I could remember fully, the look in the boy's eye, the hardness in Orochimaru's jawline and the disgust in his eyes. I remembered the feeling of the power coursing through my veins, the anger I assumed Orochimaru felt coursing through his veins beginning to course through my own. It was the only memory that didn't feel spotty, that felt full and just as real as the day it had happened, but there was another memory too, one that had happened a few hours before I would be rescued.

We had travelled a lot, always bouncing between hideouts. I had been his bodyguard and I had been his best one, he often said, ruffling my hair. We had been in the Eastern hideout, walking down one of its long and winding hallways until he opened one door that led to a room of cylinders filled with what looked like water inside. It was rows upon rows of cylinders and I stood gaping at the entrance, following the rows until the very end of the long room, where a single cylinder stood at the center, apart from the others with a panel just beside it. Orochimaru was walking toward the cylinder, not even glancing at the others in the room.

I squinted into one cylinder and made out a mangled hand with two missing fingers. I stepped away, feeling a sharp pang of terror fill my body. I didn't want to look at any of the other cylinders and I raced toward Orochimaru's side.

"There is nothing to fear, Miyuki." Orochimaru said as he reached the panel and immediately went to work.

I didn't say anything because I had been gazing up at the main cylinder and noted that the water looked different, clearer if anything. I placed a hand on the glass just as a green light came on inside, giving the water an eerie appearance, but not as eerie as the floating head that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. I screamed and jumped back, falling instead on the ground. The head in the cylinder, a boy, a little older than me, snickered down at me, his eyes menacing, his smile toothy and sharp.

"Suigetsu." Orochimaru said, not even bothering to look up from the panel. "I wouldn't upset Miyuki if I were you."

The boy's head froze in the cylinder and his eyes darted over to Orochimaru with terror flashing inside of them. He hadn't noticed Orochimaru and now that he had, I had never seen a fear so strong. The boy's head dissolved into the water and suddenly there was nothing but liquid inside and I was confused.

"Wh-who was that?" I breathed.

"A troublemaker." Orochimaru said, twisting dials on the panel.

"What are we doing here?" I asked, pushing myself up to my feet and looking at my sensei.

"Almost done." Orochimaru said before pushing another button and stepping back as if to admire his masterpiece. He flipped a switch and I saw the ghostly flicker of electric currents coursing through the main cylinder and my eyes widened.

"What's happening?" I asked just as the currents increased in power and suddenly I could see the boy's body appearing before dissolving in various points within the cylinder. His eyes were squeezed shut, his hands wrapped around his jelly-like body as he appeared to be crying out and I realized that the glass that confined him was sound-proof. My eyes widened as the currents reached maximum power and suddenly the boy's full body appeared, his eyes snapping open only to roll to the back of his head. His body slumped over to the glass just as the currents stopped travelling through his body and if I didn't know any better, I would have thought the boy was dead until a part of the glass panel jutted open and out spilled some water along with the boy's body. He hit the ground, hard, and I saw that he was in fact still alive, but his breaths were smaller, barely noticeable.

Orochimaru walked toward the boy, picking him up into his arms before bringing him to one of the metal table off to the side. He set the boy onto the table before strapping him in place. I watched him work quickly and watched as he slid and oxygen mask over the boy's head and noted how weak his breaths had really become.

"Ready?" Orochimaru asked, glancing back at me.

A shiver snaked up my spine. "F-For what?" I breathed.

He smiled down at me and motioned at the other table. "It's time for you to become even stronger and reach a whole new level."

My eyes widened in response. There was something wrong, I could feel it twisting around in my insides. I had never rejected him and I wasn't about to now but I'd be lying if I said the thought didn't cross my mind. I thought about running away but knew I wouldn't get very far. There was an edge to his smile, a promise buried somewhere beneath it. He was in my head and over the past few years he had become someone who could read my mind, who knew what I wanted and would do before I even did.

"Wh-what…wh-why-"

"Miyuki." His eyes narrowed at me and I knew he was growing impatient. I swallowed, a lump in my throat as I slowly made my way to the other table. I lied down, feeling the icy metal on my back and shivered. He slid an oxygen mask over my mouth and turned on the light above my head. It was blinding at first and as he began touching and turning things over at the small table between me and the boy.

"What are you doing?" I breathed, my heart slamming in my chest.

He didn't glance at me, didn't even bat an eyelash. His smile deepened though and he produced a scalpel from the table, turning it up as if to admire it in the light.

"I'm going to give them something worth dying for." Orochimaru said, staring at his reflection in the scalpel.

"Wh-who?" I breathed as he smiled down at me again before turning a knob by my head.

"Don't worry my dear Miyuki." Orochimaru said. "It will all be over soon."

What followed were bits and pieces of the memory, a fiery pain shooting through my body, my eyes shut to the world and the feeling of two hands sliding around my neck before squeezing. Then there was the feeling disappearing, the fingers being ripped away from my neck, leaving behind a trail of screams in its wake. Then there were screams all around me, horrible cries for help and the sound of the walls crumbling into themselves.

Then the darkness consumed me and the sounds rippled away until I felt something crumble over my face, heard the distant sound of rock shifting, of rubble being pulled away. My eyes snapped open just as the first beam of light trickled in. I winced before another chunk of rock was moved and then another and suddenly all that existed was sunlight, warm and filling as it shined down on my face.

I remembered taking a breath of fresh air and realizing that it had been a while since I had gulped one down.

"Megumi! What do you see?" A voice called out.

"She's alive!" A desperate voice called back. It was a woman's voice laced with deep worry and suddenly there she was, a woman with dark hair and dark eyes, concern knitting her thin brows together, her lips turned down at the end. She reached down to trace one of her hands along the side of my face as I began to cough.

"You're alright." She breathed, tears shining in her eyes. "Everything is going to be alright now."

I stared at her after my coughing fit, feeling confused, feeling lost and empty. What was she talking about? Who was this strange woman? Where was I?

"You're safe now." She smiled. "We're going to take you home."