…My name contains no Ms or Ks, so no, I do not own Naruto…
Chapter 2: Curiosity Killed the Cat
Tsunade stared out the window of her palace office. It had been three days since her apprentice vanished. Konoha's finest had been well aware of Kabuto's infiltration into the city. On Tsunade's orders, they had left him alone. He had gotten what he wanted, and they let him leave without a fight. Now, as she tuned out Naruto's ranting, she knew the consequences had caught up to her. But she couldn't tell them—not yet.
"Why didn't anyone stop him!?!" The blond raged around the office. "I can't believe that he just walked out of town with her!"
"Naruto…" Kakashi shook his head. "Let the Hokage finish what she was saying."
The sannin's fierce, brown-eyed stare turned back to the remainder of team seven. "We can't be sure why no one detected him," she lied. "But we will mount a search team as soon as possible."
"As soon as possible!?! What about right now?" Naruto's hands went to his hips. "Who knows what that freak is going to do to her!"
"Naruto," Sai broke into the conversation. "Calm down. You are forgetting something."
Tsunade nodded. "He's right. You're missing a very important fact."
"Yeah? What could that possible be!?!"
A look passed between Kakashi, Yamato, Sai and Tsunade. "Wherever Sakura is…Sasuke is there too."
The Kyuubi youth's expression softened. They were right. And even though Sasuke had changed, deep down inside, Naruto knew he would never harm Sakura.
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Sasuke glanced over to the hallway as Kabuto walked by. Orochimaru's subordinate held a bloodied shirt in his hands. As he passed by the Uchiha's room, he tucked the garment securely under the crook of his arm. Sasuke pretended not to notice.
He waited long enough for Kabuto to return. When he heard the tell-tale sound of a nearby door shutting, he left his own living area and ventured down the dark corridor.
Sasuke rarely traveled to this area of the hidden lair. It was mostly for servants and simple maintenance. There was a large kitchen, and next to the kitchen was a large boiler room. It was where all the blood-filled rags from Kabuto's hobby ended up. If Sasuke was lucky, the cloth would be next to the furnace. If he was unlucky, it may have already been tossed inside.
Luck was with him that day. He located the pale cloth and picked it up carefully. There was nothing note worthy about it. It was an ordinary women's cover garment, generally worn over a pair of pants or shorts. But even though there were no distinguishable characteristics, something about it tugged at his memory.
He turned it over in his hands. What was so familiar about it? It smelled of blood and sweat. For the life of him, he could not figure out why it ensnared him so.
Against his better judgment, he wadded it up and tucked it in the fold of his shirt. He would study it later. There were more pieces of the puzzle he had yet to gather.
After he returned to his room, he hid the evidence beneath his mattress.
"Sasuke-kun?" a voice called from the doorway. "Everything alright?"
He turned to face Orochimaru. "Fine."
"Has Kabuto been in with your lunch?"
"No."
"I see." The sannin's expression darkened. "He's been busy lately. I'll remind him of his more menial duties."
"Don't bother. I'm not hungry."
If you want to continue training at the level youre at, youll need to keep taking the drugs weve been using to enhance your food. Your bodys natural growth isnt fast enough. I thought we had agreed on this already.
Sasuke sighed. "Fine. Whatever." He sat down on his bed as Orochimaru left. He felt better after he ate their mixtures anyhow. They cleared his mind, enabling him to focus. The need for food would also give him an excuse to question Kabuto.
After a while, he heard the soft footsteps of the medic.
"Sasuke-kun, I brought lunch. Orochimaru-sama said you were hungry."
Figures. He would twist something as simple as that around. "Hn."
"Is there anything else?" Kabuto asked.
"No. I just expected my food sooner."
"Sorry." The medic smirked. "I've been preoccupied."
"I know. I heard the screaming." He watched Kabuto's face closely for any reaction. It was minimal, but the smile on the young man's face faltered slightly.
"Oh? Well, it's not the first time you've heard screaming, I'm sure."
"It just sounds different. Whatever you're doing must be different."
For a moment they stared at one another. Sasuke was prying for information, attempting to do so discreetly. Kabuto was protecting his knowledge, unsure if the Uchiha was being too curious for his own good. Neither one spoke right away.
After a moment, Kabuto smiled. If Sasuke wanted a mystery, he would give him one. "No, not different really. Just the test subject is unique. I've never had someone so…stubborn. You might say it's rather annoying."
Sasuke heard the inflection on that last word, and felt another memory fight to unbury itself from the shelves in his mind. He couldn't quite grasp it, however, and it fled back into the darkness of his subconscious.
He ate his food in silence, and eventually all thoughts of Orochimaru's secrets vanished, dulled by the haze brought on by Kabuto's drug cocktail.
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Sakura shuddered as the fellow healer entered the room again. She glared at him, letting him know without words that he had not broken her spirit.
"Are you hungry at all, Sakura-san?" Kabuto held out a tray of food. "It might make you feel better."
She turned her face away from the food. She had been studying the bottles of multi-colored pills that lined the walls during his absence. Though unsure of their uses, she had no doubt that he would try to slip her something eventually.
"You really should eat. I don't want to have to force you."
Sakura didn't want that either. She gingerly picked up a piece of fruit. It would be hard to hide a pill in a wedge of orange. Warily, she ate it. All the while, Kabuto stared at her.
"There, that wasn't so hard was it?" he asked her.
Again, she refused to answer him. Silence was the only defense she had left.
Well…that was not entirely true. Despite Kabuto's constant monitoring of her, he had neglected to check on his chakra-disabling handiwork. Sakura wasn't sure if it was because he underestimated her or if it was because he simply forgot. But either way, it was a dire mistake.
No one knew her body like Sakura did. And no one had the kind of medical talent she did. It hadnt taken her long to find the points within her arms and legs that were blocked. The areas were severely damaged, but not unfixable. For whatever reason, she was sure Kabuto had made it that way so he could repair it later. The thought sent a chill down her spine.
Today may not be the day, but soon she would have the pressure points healed. When that moment came, she would relish in the look on her captors' faces.
For now, she would just have to endure.
"Sakura-san, I was thinking that today we would play a little game."
She stared at the ceiling, silent.
"You let me do something I want to do, and I'll tell you anything you want to know about Sasuke." As he said this, he held up an instrument Sakura had never seen before. A large needle was attached to a long hollow tube. The tube fed into a thick glass container. It resembled a bloodletting device. But…he had her interest.
"Sound reasonable?" he asked.
She stared at him a moment longer. Nothing he could do to her now would be any worse than what had already happened. However, she couldn't help but feel like it was a trap. But I could ask whatever I wanted about Sasuke. The information she gained might allow her to rescue Sasuke when she finally broke free.
Reluctantly, she nodded.
A smile lit up Kabuto's face. "Excellent! Things are so much easier when you're agreeable. First, I'll explain. This little thing here is a chakra extractor. I'll place the needle in one of the chakra lines of your body. Then, the pump here will kick on and I'll extract however much I need. I'll then use your chakra to fuel one of my many lifeless bodies that are in storage."
Sakura remembered Kabuto and Orochimaru's abilities to reanimate corpses. It didn't surprise her that they had developed other methods of achieving that goal.
She did her best to hold still as the needle was inserted in the upper aspect of her arm.
"Alright, very good. Now you may ask me a question."
Her voice was only a whisper as she asked, "How long does Sasuke-kun have before Orochimaru is ready for the body transfer?"
"Oh, slightly less than three months." He turned the pump on.
"Will Orochimaru really help kill Itachi?"
The medic shook his head. "That question does not pertain to Sasuke-kun." He turned the knob up slightly higher.
Sakura could feel the warmth of her chakra leaving her. It was an unsettling feeling. She swallowed, concerned about the pain that had clouded her senses. Does does Sasuke-kun ever talk about us?
Kabuto smiled, more to himself than to her. "No." He was not required to elaborate on the truth of that answer. If she realized that the majority of his memories of Konoha were suppressed, it might give her another reason to keep fighting him. It was best to let her think Sasuke had no attachment to his friends from the beginning.
As the small jar filled up, Sakura found herself feeling tired. It was not the same feeling that came from using chakra. Having it drained from the body was completely alien. It was almost as if her system did not acknowledge the fact that the chakra was missing. If she hadn't used it…then where had it gone? Because of this, she could tell that her body was not making more to replace what was lost.
From the look on her face, Kabuto knew what she was thinking. "Ah, so you've noticed. And your thoughts are correct. Eventually, your system will slowly begin to make more. However, until then, you're just going to sleep."
As her eyes began to close, Sakura heard Kabuto say, "And don't worry, I'll be sure to fix whatever I do before you wake up."
Damn. Sakura thought before the darkness of slumber claimed her.
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Sasuke's hand gripped the locked handle. It was late, very late, and he was sure that both Kabuto and Orochimaru were asleep. Not that it really mattered to him. He knew that neither of them could or would attempt to stop him. In fact, he wasn't sure just why he had waited until dark to try the door.
He wasn't sure why he was doing it at all.
In the back of his mind, he wondered if it had something to do with the strange silence that had been in the lair for the last four days. The lack of screaming had him more curious than when the noise of it kept him awake. If the experiment was dead, the door wouldn't still be locked.
He sent a shock of lightning into the lock, shattering it completely.
The door swung open, revealing nothing but impenetrable darkness. Summoning a small ball of chidori, Sasuke used the blue light to illuminate the space before him. In his shock, he stood there for a moment, staring at the limp body that hung from the ceiling.
No…at the bodies that hung from the ceiling.
His shock instantly turned to anger. What was going on?
Four figures hung in the otherwise empty room. Four akatsuki figures. The lifeless forms of Kisame, Zetsu, Hidan, and…
…Itachi.
Body doubles? Sasuke's sharingan flared. What the hell is going on here?
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Coming soon: Chapter 3: Tsunade's Bargain
Author's note: Thanks to all of you who left reviews! And a familia booyah to my faithful followers. ( if you don't watch Mad Money with Jim Cramer, then the concept of a familia booyah will be lost on you) But trust me, it's a good thing!