Over the next few months, I picked up a couple of facts.
One, who ever was running the hell I was in had no scruples.
Two, I was probably not in any hell or purgatory since I still needed to eat, sleep, poop, etcs.
Three, I was definitely a tiny child and it sucked.
I woke up in what looked like a kennel I saw once at an animal shelter. A three by four space with a hole in the ground for a toilet and a padlocked chain link fence instead of a door. If I pressed my face against the fence I could see five more kids in cells to my right, one kid dead ahead, and two kids to my left. Some of the kids cried, some of them screamed, and most of them looked...inhuman.
One of the kids had webbed hands. Another has a series of fins. The most normal looking girl had scales in patches on her skin all over her body.
The first thing I did when I noticed the mutations was run my hands all over my body. I touched everywhere I could reach but I didn't feel any webbing or fins or gills like the girl four cells down. The kids were all kinds of different ages. Some looking maybe 10 or 11. I was either the youngest or next to youngest. The scaled girl looked about my size but it was hard to tell.
I had a collar on. Every time I tried to make a noise, it shocked me. I tried to mime my questions but the boy in the cage across from me was beyond human interaction. He spent most of his time rocking back and forth, and I never managed to get him to make eye contact.
Someone came by hours later in a white lab coat and shoved a bowl of gruel under the cage door. I watched the other kids throw themselves at the gruel and either ate face first or shoveled it into the mouths with their hands. I had to take small bites. Getting things through the tight collar was almost impossible.
On the fourth day someone dragged me out of my cage, I huddled in the corner and refused to move. Rather than get close, they used a cattle prod to taze me.
The tests they ran were pretty much the same. Shove me in a wire cage. Drop me in an aquarium and see what happened when I panicked. The first few times I screamed and broke the glass but after a while, I stopped being terrified of drowning and got the hang of making my neck burn until I could breath. Turns out my new body could pop open gills if I thought I was drowning. With more practice it stopped feeling like a burn and felt more like a stretch. The first time I decided to just sit in the cage and relax, they shot a volt of electricity into the aquarium. I woke up on the ground, with broken glass all around me and bits of broken metal blasted all over the room. The observers who has been in the room were all dead. I got up slowly and picked my way around the broken glass to the door.
Even with my best efforts, I still managed to cut my feet on the floor. I had barely opened the door when I got spotted by security.
Needless to say, I was tazed and put right back in the cage. Over time kids would disappear from the other doors only to be replaced by other children. Eventually, every cell I could see besides mine had been replaced at least twice.
I felt like I was going crazy. What did I do to deserve this? I didn't kick puppies or steal from the homeless. Sure, I was a little mean and yeah, I tended to get carried away defending myself and my friends but, hey, who among us wouldn't get a little sadistic with a muggler?
I sang to myself in my head. Constantly. Everything I could remember: Rap, Blues, Opera, Rock, Jingles from commercials. I made my body act out all my memories, every stupid story I ever read, every movie I ever saw. I was halfway through Goblet of Fire when I heard screaming in the compound. Screams weren't all that unusual but the strange part was this sounded like screams from adults.
I heard the metal door slam open that lead into our unit and I heard a voice arguing. That was strange. Normally the scientists were careful not to speak in front of us in the kennels. They'd only the labs. It made us crazy. I thought I was the only one getting this treatment until I heard a couple of the other caged kids discussing it after lights out
If the kids were heard speaking, we were tazed. I had the shock collar but I still mime. It helped me learn the language. Mostly the other children were crying out for parents or sharing stories if they were new. Most of them seemed to be snatched from the surrounding villages. From what they said, it seemed like we were near the sea side or at least, the scientists were snatching kids from the seaside and turning them into monsters. Those that talked made it pretty clear that they had been perfectly normal before they woke in here. Not everyone could survive the changes. One of the girls poisoned herself trying to pull out her new quills.
Other than my past life, I couldn't remember anything from this life. All I knew about myself was that I had the body of a toddler, with skin pale enough to pass for eggshell or a very sickly creme, and a thick, filthy tangle of black hair. Also I probably had Reynards syndrome because my hands were slight blue.
The whoever was speaking didn't even bother to lower his voice. "Now, I know you have your doubts about this project, but I think you should take a look at our best test subject." A second voice made a dismissive noise. "I don't have the time for this. You've already let one of them get free. The security is terrible." I raised an eyebrow. Someone had escaped? Good for them.
I pressed my face against the fence. My collar made a soft click against the metal. Two men rounded the corner. The shorter one with gray hair was familiar. I saw him duck into the experiment rooms fairly often review their results. Usually after the scientists finished their torture sessions, sometimes during. He always smiled whenever he looked at me and he always made the kindest expressions when I was bleeding. I prayed for his kidneys to rupture every night.
The second man was tall, with black hair and what looked like purple eyeliner around his snake eyes - yellow with the slitted pupils. He wore a long dark kimono with mesh underneath and he had a bored expression..
I tilted my head and the motion made another soft click against the fence.
The second man turned to look at me and he froze. His eyes widened.
"This is experiment code named Wani," He gestured at me and made one of his slow, calculated smiles. "As you can see, we've managed to use gene splicing to stabilize the original donor DNA you gave us. This was our first viable candidate The genetic components are exactly as you described - perfect for the goal of underwater shinobi. This is the oldest living test tube grown specimen in our experiments. The previous attempts destabilized and died from chronic insomnia followed by systemic organ failure. However, the sample did not graft well with our embryonic cloning techniques so we used your DNA to ground the effects you requested. I thought having your own child used as a hostage would be a good incentive to increase our funding." He had slowly shifted into an expression of triumph during his speech, every inch of him smug with arrogance.
The second man turned to the first, studying him with a careful blank expression before moving so fast his body became a blur. One second, the first man was standing. The second, he was lying on the floor in three pieces and the second man was moving towards my cell. The blood was just suddenly everywhere, like I had gone from looking at one picture to another. My face felt warm and wet. It took me a moment to understand I was covered in the first man's blood and the second man was still walking towards me.
I backed away as quickly as I could. His sword cut right through the metal like it was air. He stood in the opening, sword drawn. He looked like a pirate. I was going to die. Again. And probably reincarnated somewhere WORSE.
At least if I died, I would die with dignity. I crossed my arms. I looked him right in the eyes and tried irritated as if my murder was going to be an inconvenience.
He laughed.
The other caged children were screaming in the background but like hell was I going to spend my last second alive cowering against a murderer with a sword.
"Of all the ways to find you."
Wait, what?
He sheathed his sword and held out his hand, bending neatly at the waist to reach me. "Come along, child. We are leaving this place."
I reached out to take his hand.
He yanked my arm.
I stumbled forward and in the motion, he reached out with both hands and reached for my collar. I felt a horrible clench around my neck following by a loud CRACK. I watched the two pieces fall to the ground and I opened my mouth to try and say my first words.
"Thank you?" I could hear the hesitation in my voice. It was a rasp, higher than my old life and hoarse from disuse. My hands reached up to touch the space where the collar had rested. The skin felt clammy.
The man laughed again, a soft sound that softened his severe features.
I raised my hands up in the air and made a grasping motion.
He gave me another amused look and lifted me over one of his hips. We walked out of the kennel, and passed through the complex. Something about being carried by this stranger made me feel safe and incredibly terrified. On one hand, he was taking me away from the worst nightmare of my lives. On the other hand, he cut a man into three chunks and gave zero fucks about the situation.
As we walked through, I watched a handful of other men, dashing through the complex and cutting down the scientists. Eventually, when we reached a part of the building no one had been through before, one of the men stopped in front of us. He was covered in a spatter of blood and he smelled like he was splattered with other fluids as well.
"We've successfully dispatched the armed guard and the first level of - Holy shit, Orochimaru-sama, is that a kid?"
I looked at the guy who had spoken. Black pants, back shirt, a headband with a metal plate and a single musical note? Oh god, I felt faint. That looks like a Sound shinobi. From Naruto. A sound shinobi from the fictional anime Naruto. I've just been saved by Orochimaru.
I buried my face in the space between neck and his hair. I was doomed. Orochimaru was a baby experimenting creep of creeps. He was such a douchebag, even Sasori of the Sand thought he was a dick. I was doomed. I was escaping prison only to be kidnapped by the anime version of Hydra. Oh fuck.
Orochimaru's voice was cold when he replied. "It appears Amachi thought I would approve of his decision to grow a child made with my genetic material to stabilize the underwater soldier project. Take this to the base camp and clean the filth off her. I want to personally collect this research before we restructure this compound."
Orochimaru passed me over to the Sound Shinobi. "Send more ninja to collect the other experiments. After all-" He smirked. "Every village needs its genin."
The guy he passed me off to gave him a skeptical look but he took me through the corridors and outside of a wide entrance way. The sun was shining over the water. I couldn't tell if the sun was rising or setting, but I could see the ocean breaking over a white beach to the left or a low, white cement compound. There were at least five other ninja standing guard outside the compound. There were explosions coming from inside. Shouting and yelling as well. The guys carrying me stopped in front of two older men. One with dark green hair and a scowl, the other with feathers growing out of his hair.
The feathered man took one look at me and gave the shinobi holding me an incredulous look. "You are not keeping that child!" He grabbed me under my arms and put me down on the sand. I was starting to feel like a hot potato. "No, Daisuke. No." He repeated again, scolding his the way you would scold a misbehaving puppy.
The guys holding me - Daisuke - rolled his eyes. "I am not that bad."
The scowling guy murmured, "Yes, yes you are. This is the fifth mission where I've found you making off with a baby."
The three of them looked at me. I waved.
"Otokage's orders, Taro. We're supposed to clean her up and then fetch the other experiments from inside. I think they're all kids. Orochimaru-sama said something about needing genin."
Lying liar. He told Daisuke to clean me up. Not Daisuke's team. I crossed my arms. This sneaky bastard was gonna foist me off on someone else. Pretty smart move.
The scowling guy looked horrified. He ran his hands through his hair, tugging at his feathers and dreads. "I did not leave my village to adopt a bunch of baby chicks. Do you know how many?"
Daisuke shrugged. "I don't even know how I'm supposed to clean this kid. Kaito, you're from Hidden Mist. You know any water jutsu?"
Sure enough, a little creativity with an over vigorous mist jutsu and some pretty uncomfortable scrubbing did the job. I felt clean for the first time since, well, death. Taro gave me the shirt off his back when I started to shiver. Whatever the Sound shinobi were doing in there, it was taking a while.
For lack of anything else to do, I pulled out some of the beach grass and started braiding it into a long strip. When it reached long enough I tied it around my waist and finally let myself think.
I had been trying my best not to think of anything at all for weeks. I thought my new life was going to be a short bleak life followed by who knows what. Now that I had been freed, I was probably going to wind up in some kind of horrible experimental cell like Suigestu or something.
There was no way I could try and change the future to save people. Not when I was in Sound. Even if Orochimaru kept me around and made me a Sound genin, I would just die during the invasion of Konoha. If I tried to defect, the other villages would kill me or torture me for information. I still had to try and save the world. After all, I thought hysterically, I'm one of the idiots living in it.
My only chance was...that creepy scientist guy- the one Orochimaru killed - made it sound like I was some kind of designer test tube baby made from his DNA. He probably wouldn't kill his own kid. Maybe. Hopefully.
If I could stay alive then I could use my position to take over Otogakure when Sasuke kills him. As Otokage I would definitely be in a better position to help to stop Madara and all the other horrible things that take place in this world so they never, ever, ever have to happen to me.
Orochimaru may have the emotional growth of a bag of cats but, from what I can remember from the anime, he only really became a bag of cats after the devastation of his parents deaths. He did say something about looking for me so...
I sighed. This was the worst life plan I had ever thought of. The actual worst.
I tied my grass belt around my waist, folding the extra material in front to mimic the kimono that Orochimaru had been wearing. Taro and Daisuke had left to fetch the other kids from inside the compound. Kaito was the one left to watch over me while they finished ransacking the place.
I reached over to the cloth around his knee and gave a firm tug.
"What," Kaito snapped, eyes still watching out over the tree line.
I tugged again and waited until Kaito looked down. "I am Wani, child of Orochimaru and princess of Sound." I wanted to say heir but I didnt know that word. I tried to speak with the same gravitas Orochimaru. It came out pretty weak but luckily, the rasp my voice made mimicked Orochimaru's accent close enough that Kaito looked disturbed. I held out my hand. "I need feed."
Kaito gave me a slow appraising look before looking even more disturbed than before. "You really shouldn't tell people that. That can't be true.
I shrugged and made grasping motions with my hands.
"Is a ration bar okay, Otohime?" The title came out pretty sarcastic but I'd take whatever I could get.
I nodded. Kaito pulled a ration bar out of his back pocket and handed it over before going back to watching the horizon for any attackers.
It was at least another hour for Taro and Daisuke to come back with another nine kids between them. The other kids were also outfitted in what looked like bits and pieces of the scientists clothing.
I made sure to stand separately from them and stayed close to Kaito. He did not waste any time in telling the other shinobi what I told him, rolling his eyes as he complained about the nerve of that little shit. Daisuke looked delighted while Taro looked like he was going to chase down Orochimaru and give him the same speech he gave Daisuke.
"We can't have a princess of Sound. That's not how Hidden Village system works." Taro snapped.
I thought of all the Tsunade's childhood and I laughed. It came out as the same soft ku ku ku sound Orochimaru made. The three shinobi cringed away from me. I rolled with it. "One day Sound is mine." I tried to make my tone sound as serious as possible to try and back my claim. Also to be an asshole. Serious kids are creepy as fuck and I wanted to mess with them
Kaito stared, "That's just messed up."
I held out the wrapper of the ration bar. "Trash."
The three of them looked at each other until Taro rolled his eyes and snatched it, slipping the wrapper in a back pocket. "She's the size of a garden snake."
"So was Orochimaru-sama once," Daisuke said dubiously.
A few minutes later half dozen ninja wearing sound headbands came out of the building with Orochimaru in the center. "Back to the central base. Everyone takes one or two of the…" His gaze swept over the children, pausing to linger on me. "...pre-genin. Remember, face masks until we leave Wave."
I walked right over to Orochimaru and held out my arms again Orochimaru clicked his tongue once and picked me up, settling me over his left hip. I was careful to wrap my arm around his neck in a soft hug. He felt warm with the cold sea air blowing.
The other ninja picked out the children from the crowd. Daisuke picked up two and seemed to be reaching for a third before Taro lightly kicked his ankle.
Once the last child was settled, there must have been some kind of signal given and I couldn't even see what it was. We flew through the trees. I could feel the wind pressing me against Orochimaru and the trees whipping past at a speed to quickly I could barely keep track. I closed my eyes and felt myself slowly doze off.