Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Lost Soul ❯ Converging Paths ( Chapter 23 )

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and not me. If it did I sure as hell wouldn't be back for another year of university! I do get to claim the Yominokunis, Yakubyougami and the Tekigougan for myself though!

 

A Note from Katana Haibane: Well, it seems that any deadlines I set for myself hate me so I really don't think I'll try setting one in the future. All I can promise for all of my readers is that I'll get the chapter out as fast as possible, and barring any complications or family issues that arise they should return coming out around once a month, sooner if time permits.

 

Chapter 23: Converging Paths

 

Mikomi could barely lift her eyes from the path that lead out of Konoha despite the brilliant glow the rising sun cast upon Fire Country's expansive forest. She couldn't admire the fabulous carriage the Fire Daimyo was traveling in, the glossy red wood and black trim left unseen. She missed Sakura's worried glances in her direction while Naruto's exuberant voice fell upon her deaf ears. She just wished that she had been able to tune out the not-so-silent whispers that had followed her from the moment she had entered the Hokage tower the night before.

 

 

When her tou-san had snuck into to Konoha to visit her in the middle of the night it shocked Mikomi to the core. Every single feeling that she had tried to repress for the past month had forced its way to the surface. Hope, amazement, wonder, disbelief, rage, betrayal. She had barely been able to accept that her tou-san had tried to kill her, let alone even consider her old fantasies while she had been a prisoner in the Village Hidden in Sound. Fantasies where her tou-san had come and taken her away.

 

And everybody working within the Hokage Tower knew about his visit.

 

Barbed whispers followed everywhere from the moment she had entered. `Outsider,' `Sound spy' and `Traitorous wench' were some of the nicer comments that had been said about her. Mikomi hadn't made the connection to her tou-san's nighttime infiltration until a group of council members decided to start speaking even louder as she went past, “He reported that she had met with somebody last night and was given a way to contact him. Clearly Tsunade's beliefs aren't nearly as correct as she has tried to pretend that they are…”

 

Mikomi had wanted to fade right into the woodwork then and there. She didn't want to consider what those words meant. But she knew. Mikomi knew that those people wanted her out of Konoha. Or they wanted her dead. Their words cut as harshly as those that had found their way to here ears in the Sound.

 

 

In a sense, they had gotten one of their wishes: Mikomi wasn't going to be coming back to Konoha for at least a month. They had been assigned to accompany the Fire Daimyo during a diplomatic tour to Rain Country to solidify their alliance and trade agreements.

 

For the first time since she had been accepted into Konoha, Mikomi was actually looking forward to leaving Konoha for a while. It may have been what those old bastards on the council wanted, but at least she didn't have to deal with the stares and the disgusting rumours that had started following her around. She could drown her sorrows in her work once again.

 

It was a testament to Mikomi's experience as a shinobi that she was able to easily take up her flanking position directly to the left of the Daimyo's carriage. A testament to Kakashi's and Sasuke's training as well. She knew what she had to do during a mission, even if she had other problems troubling her. Sasuke and the Sound had drilled the importance of flawlessly completing her mission; Kakashi and Konoha had drilled teamwork into Mikomi. So Mikomi left Konoha flanking the fire Daimyo with her team. Her eyes and ears were scanning the surrounding countryside from the moment that they left Konoha while her mind was locked in turmoil.

 

Mikomi was a ninja, and even though she hated the problems beyond her control that were happening in her life she knew that she had a job that she had to do. If nothing else, the people who believed in her had allowed her to accompany them during a mission as important as guarding the leader of the entire Fire Country.

 

 

Nighttime was quickly becoming Mikomi's least favourite time to be awake as she traveled Team Seven and the Fire Daimyo towards Rain Country.

 

Despite how slowly they were traveling throughout the day at least there was always something that needed to be done. There were times when Mikomi had to move ahead of their party to scout ahead for any possible threats to the Daimyo's party of ten - not that any were likely to appear. She had to keep her feet moving while keeping an eye on the Daimyo's entourage to ensure that they didn't wander too far away from the group. If nothing else was left to do, Mikomi could even try and focus on calling her electrical elemental affinity to the surface and perform a simple control exercise of trying to move one spark of electricity from one finger to the next and rotating back again. Even the mindless chatter that a rather pale-faced advisor sent her way was enough to keep her mind at least partially distracted from everything that had been bothering her.

 

But not at night. At night, Mikomi was left alone with her thoughts without anything to distract her. There hadn't been a night where she had lay down to rest where she hadn't tossed and turned in inner turmoil until her turn to stand watch came up. For hours she would lay or stand awake at night with her thoughts crushing in on her from all sides.

 

The whispers that had started to haunt her throughout Konoha continued to ring in her head. The glares and the condescending voice echoing in the renewing darkness inside Mikomi's already troubled mind. This brought back the echoes of her past, the taunting and the cruelty she had suffered at the hands of Sadisuto and the other members of the Village Hidden in Sound. Those memories were almost enough to make her sick.

 

However, those memories weren't causing Mikomi the most strife. Thoughts of Kitoushi, her tou-san, were cutting the deepest. The bright, cheerful man that she had admired her entire childhood; the kind and gentle healer from Ko Village: the tou-san she knew was no more. The two men, Yakubyougami and Kitoushi may have had the same face but they were nothing like the other.

 

Kitoushi had been willing to go out of his way to forgive and forget, often helping out the sick and needy for reduced fees if he could cut costs by only using medical jutsu. His strong hands were tough, but soft enough to comfort even a crying babe. He had been a man whom Mikomi honestly couldn't ever remember raising his voice - let alone his hand - in anger. The opposite of what Yakubyougami was. Mikomi couldn't see any resemblance to the kind Kitoushi: Yakubyougami's features seemed to have a furious hatred engrained in them. He exuded an aura that could make a grown man run for cover if they so much as raised his ire. His body was hardened and strung taught, like a coiled steel wire and with just as much power to rip through a person's skin. He was a killer, plain and simple.

 

And Mikomi couldn't accept that they were the same person whose memory she had clung to in the Village hidden in sound. But she had felt her tou-san's willingness to kill first hand, another traumatic experience in her sad existence.

 

Oddly enough, that attitude Mikomi could somewhat accept, even if she couldn't accept her tou-san as a killer. After all, the Akatsuki member she had fought with Hinata had obviously been another ninja, and sometimes ninja had to kill. However, a doctor shouldn't have any need to kill and Mikomi still couldn't wrap her head around the one-eighty her tou-san's personality seemed to have taken.

 

Finally, Mikomi's thoughts would always return to one horrible truth: her tou-san had been alive from the moment she had been forced into servitude to Orochimaru and the Village Hidden in Sound. If only….if only her tou-san had come to saver her, rescue her from the tortures of those bastards from the Sound…Mikomi might have been able to reconcile her tou-san's aggressive change in her own mind. But that hadn't happened. No, Mikomi had been left to rot in the dungeons of the Sound while her tou-san gallivanted off to become a killer for Akatsuki - the fact that he hadn't know she was alive be damned!

 

So sleep refused to come easily to Mikomi. She had no choice but to continue to play her part on their escort mission to travel with the Fire Daimyo on his diplomatic tour to Rain Country. The only choice Mikomi did have was what she could do with her sleepless nights.

 

At first Sakura had tried repeatedly to get Mikomi to talk to her as she sat a good distance away from the evening camps whenever they hadn't been close enough to rent an inn in a nearby village. Sakura had tried to get Mikomi to open up, or at the very least, release some of the pent up emotion that everyone could see swirling just beneath the surface of Mikomi's every movement.

 

Mikomi had just brushed her off time and again. She didn't want to be burdened by having another person force her memories from her.

 

Naruto had tried goofing around more than usual to elicit some sort of smile from Mikomi, hoping to catch a glimpse of the friend he had made while training with Hinata. It was to no avail, Mikomi didn't even so much as twitch enough to leave even a hint of a suppressed smile.

 

Instead, Mikomi trained. Whenever she didn't have a duty or a task or a reason to interact with another human being enough to prevent her thoughts from drifting to hurtful memories, Mikomi trained. Chakra roared and churned as she practiced restoring her control over her elemental affinity for lightning. She trained to wear her self out, she trained to purge every last conscious thought from her body and mind before she would allow herself the luxury of returning to the camp to catch a couple hours of sleep before they had to continue traveling in the morning. Mikomi knew that even with her immense stamina that she would start to burn out eventually, but she felt trapped.

 

Mikomi couldn't fall asleep if she still had thoughts of her tou-san or her time spent in the Village Hidden in Sound on her mind. So day by day, night by night, Mikomi fought through her memories of the past and her exhaustion of the present, subconsciously preparing herself for the next confrontation with her tou-san that she knew was going to come eventually.

 

 

Two weeks.

 

It had been two, whole, damned weeks since Sasuke had earned his reward of a second chance at life and Shinigami still hadn't delivered on his promise. It was enough to make anybody want to start destroying things. Luckily for Sasuke, the training dojo had been restored after his fight with Shinigami and had more than enough things to destroy inside of it: namely a seemingly inexhaustible supply of training posts and dummies.

 

The worst part about his entire situation is that Sasuke knew he had absolutely no control over the situation at all. He was nothing more than a lucky soul that had kept its characteristics and memories after passing on to the afterlife because the Shinigami had a use for him. There wasn't a single more frustrating feeling that Sasuke could remember experiencing in his entire existence. Sasuke hadn't even felt this frustrated even after years of pursuing Itachi before he died by his brother's hand. At least he had been pursuing a goal then, one of his own choosing. He had finally accepted that truth in death that he couldn't understand in life.

 

But how the hell was he supposed to do anything when he had absolutely no control of how or when he returned to life?

 

Grumbling, Sasuke finished obliterating the training post he had been working on before finishing his workout. As frustrating as this inexplicable wait was, at least the facilities that he had been provided with were excellent, and he had taken full advantage of them these last two weeks not that he wasn't training for his life.

 

Sasuke hurried through a quick wash and rinse of everything important before throwing himself into the massive furo that Shinigami had provided this time around after he recreated the dojo. Slipping into the steaming water Sasuke couldn't help but sigh in contentment. The water just felt so enjoyable after going so long without a good soak. Of course, the fact that he was returning to life soon was enough to leave him feeling slightly giddy despite the frustrating wait that Shinigami was putting him through.

 

Sasuke brought his hand up to the left side of his neck where the cursed seal had resided all those months ago. It was hard to believe that giving into the curse seal had changed him so completely. He hadn't even realized how badly the seal had fed off of his negative emotions and channeled all of his energy towards them until it had been removed. The amplified hatred and drive towards killing Itachi had faded away as it once had during his days on Team Seven in Konoha. Everything he had ever learned under Orochimaru couldn't…no, wouldn't have been able to truly been used effectively on Itachi in the end, especially since he hadn't truly had any control over his final decisions.

 

His other feelings were a confusing jumble as well. He could feel the faded affection that he had briefly felt for Konoha and his teammates that had nearly been driven from his body after he had surrendered to the cursed seal. He could remember the good times and the bad times he had spent with his team, but nothing could truly seem to bring back what he had felt and experienced during those days.

 

As time passed and the furo slowly began to cool and the steam just hung in the air Sasuke closed his eyes and let his head lean over the edge of the furo and onto the tiled floor. His thoughts had finally drifted to Yominokuni Mikomi. Us unreal as it seemed, he could distinctly remember certain emotions towards the girl break through his cursed seal. Pride. Acknowledgement. Affection. Feelings that he realized had never come close to the surface of his mind for the duration he had been under the cursed seals effects.

 

Sasuke remember his final thoughts of Mikomi. Had he truly meant it when his dying thoughts had been of loving the girl, of wanting to restart the Uchiha clan with her? It seemed damn near unbelievable considering the totality the influence of the cursed seal had held over him since he had succumbed to its power.

 

He had briefly wondered if Orochimaru might have implanted that suggestion into his mind using the connection of the cursed seal, but that didn't make any sense. He already had what amounted to absolute control over him so it seemed rather unlikely that Orochimaru would do anything that might give Sasuke any comfort. Still…

 

Shaking his head Sasuke gave up on this cycle of thoughts. He didn't want to accept the possibility that the invigorating feelings that he had begun to nearly the end of his life to be the callous manipulation of a madman. So he just accepted them, as he had every other time this distressing train of thought crossed his mind.

 

A brief smile crossed Sasuke's face: Orochimaru must have been royally pissed off that his little slave had been able to resist the curse seal enough to release the other person he had wanted under his control. The ironic part was that Sasuke hadn't even realized that he had actually wanted to set Mikomi free but had done it anyway.

 

Lost in what were quickly becoming pleasant thoughts, Sasuke had no chance to react as suddenly the entire dojo, the water, and everything else disappeared out from beneath Sasuke. Having nothing beneath his body for support and being caught off guard while reclining in the furo, Sasuke ended up in an undignified heap on the ground, landing with a thump on his bare ass. Glancing wildly around in shock, Sasuke heard the familiar rumbling of laughter that signaled the presence of Shinigami.

 

“Can't you at least warn me ahead of time so I could have put some clothes on?” Sasuke groaned as he got to his feet, “I mean, it's not like you had to literally pull a furo out form under me is it?”

 

It was another moment before Shinigami stopped laughing, “Of course not, but where would the fun in that be? I do have so few opportunities for humour in my existence.” Sasuke opened his mouth to retort but Shinigami just waved his hand to brush him off, “Believe me there is nothing at all you should possibly be embarrassed about in front of me. I can assure you that I've seem every shape and form of the human body imaginable, not to mention that my own projected image and sensations are completely at my whims, so if I truly wanted to I could appear before you however I wanted.”

 

A fierce blush spread across Sasuke's face as the implications of what Shinigami said struck home and had to force himself to move his hands away from his body when he started to speak again. He didn't want to show any more weakness than he already had. After all, he still had the Uchiha pride. “What the hell took you so long then? You said that if I finished your tests that you would bring me back to life on the condition that I hunted down and killed Orochimaru!”

 

“You are correct Sasuke-kun,” Shinigami rumbled as what looked like a smirk briefly flickered over the god of death's face, “and I immediately set to work on the preparations necessary to return you to life. I am a god of death, not life. Taking someone's life or governing the rules of death is child's play for one such as myself. Creating life, on the other hand, is a far more difficult task for one in my situation. I had to create a fresh, untainted body for you in the first place as well as go through the proper channels with my counterpart whom governs life.” This time Shinigami did grin - something that still gave Sasuke the creeps - as he watched the Uchiha try and wrap his head around what he had just heard, “Which is exactly why this situation is such a big deal. After all, we cannot allow for a mortal to be running around outside of the very boundaries of existence can we?”

 

Head swimming, Sasuke just nodded. A god of life and a god of death and neither are all powerful but have to work in harmony? This was something that was a heck of a lot harder to understand or believe than the concept of an all powerful being who governed death itself…and he had previously assumed life as well.

 

“Let's get to the important stuff then,” Sasuke snapped, giving up on trying to ever figure out something as elemental as a ruler of death, “what about your end of the bargain? My life, and that `prize' you were going to give me if I managed to harm you? There are several things that I want to do with my life now that I can get on with it.”

 

Once again Shinigami's irritating laughter echoed around Sasuke, “As impertinent ever young Uchiha, but I understand you're enthusiasm to return to life. However, there are several things that I must warn you about.”

 

Shinigami's robes pooled around him as he sat down and Sasuke followed suit, “To begin with, there are two conditions that will allow you to keep your life and your memories upon reentering the living realm. The first is comparatively simple: you have exactly one year from the moment that you become conscious in the living realm to destroy the abomination known as Orochimaru. This is the condition that I have set upon you. The second one is far more…challenging for one in your profession to complete. Kami has instructed that upon your twentieth life or upon marriage, whichever comes first, you are forbidden to directly take the life of another human being. If either of these conditions is not met you will immediately and unequivocally die. Painfully, might I add, as I'll be tearing your soul from your body to kill you myself.”

 

For a moment a look of impotent fury spread across Sasuke's face before he sighed and nodded. He already knew that he had absolutely no choice in the matter.

 

“As for speaking about this experience with anyone, we will reserve that judgment to be your own. However, it would be wise to avoid mentioning this to anyone as returning to life already will give your soul a natural resistance to death which will because for certain factions in your world to hunt you down to use your potent soul to extent their own life. As for…other matters…”

 

Sasuke's eyes widened as Shinigami held out his massive right hand and concentrated for but a moment. Motes of light seemed to coalesce from out of nowhere and began to concentrate on his palm until sparks seemed to fly. They seemed to grow in intensity for another thirty seconds before they ceased entirely, leaving a black object in its place. In Shinigami's hand was held a perfect replica of the Kusanagi katana that Orochimaru had given him except for one difference: the entire thing was black. There was absolutely no shine coming from the blade, no artwork or extravagance whatsoever. In fact, Sasuke could hardly see where the blade began as its grip lay directly across a tattoo on Shinigami's palm.

 

Picking up the blade as if it was a toothpick, Shinigami passed it to Sasuke, “This is the gift that I promised if you could lay a hand on me and also the only way that you will be allowed to step outside the contract that Kami has laid upon you. To begin with, this sword is the only possible way to destroy Orochimaru if he attempts to leave his body and perform a spirit transfer. It will become the only weapon that can actually harm a soul outside of its owner's body. However, if you so chose, this blade can also become a contract connected to myself. Since you will be my instrument at my bidding there will be no opportunity for Kami to enforce his `no killing' sanction upon. Oh, and upon your death another from your family will have to take up the blade or else they will all perish upon your family defaulting on our contract. You have a choice to make before I return you to life Uchiha…”

 

Anger and revulsion marred Sasuke's face as he stared the Shinigami down with his Sharingan whirring into his eyes. Without his mind clouded by the cursed seal Sasuke no longer was so easily blinded by such offers of power, “My goal in my new life is to restore the Uchiha clan, amongst other things. Not being allowed to kill after marriage or the age of twenty is a small price to pay if it means that nothing will possibly be able to hold by my family. I refuse to put my existence in the palm of any other being ever again!”

 

A brief flicker of annoyance passed over the Shinigami's face before he began to roar with laughter once again, “Kami was right about you boy, I suppose that your head truly is clear of any lingering influences that the cursed seal might have had. He never imposed such a restriction on you in the first place. Well, enjoy your new life and be sure to kill Orochimaru in a year or else we'll be meeting once again…”

 

“What the hell you fucker?” Sasuke screamed as everything began to fade away from his sight, Shinigami's laughter echoing in his ears.

 

 

`Hmmm…fuzzy…' was the first thought that echoed through Sasuke's mind as he slowly started to become aware of himself once again. It was an appropriate thought too. His vision wasn't clear at all, nothing but a fuzzy has of someone in desperate need of glasses. He had a hard time smelling or even tasting anything as it felt as if someone had shoved a bunch of cotton balls into his mouth and nose. As for his body…well, that just tingled all over the place. He was completely disoriented, and a little bit of fear crept into his mind as he couldn't quite grasp what was going on.

 

That is, until another voice echoed inside of his head.

 

“The disorientation and confusion will pass in roughly twenty hours Sasuke,” Shinigami's familiar voice echoed in Sasuke's mind, “but until then you will have to bear with the situation. You will be unable to move until the template body has adapted and formed to fit the current capabilities and physique of your spiritual body. Until that time, you will remain undetected and held beneath the invisibility jutsu that I have placed around your body.”

 

`What?' Sasuke couldn't help but thinking in response, until the scattered fragments of his memories suddenly rushed to the forefront and his consciousness pieced itself back together properly.

 

“I must warn you that I have sensed that Orochimaru is nearly prepared to take residence within your old body Sasuke, so it appears that you barely passed the tests in time. Had you taken even another thirty-six hours, I'm afraid that you would have been unable to return to life. Oh, and I've given that sword of yours an identical black sheath to carry the blade in. That and I must say that I'm impressed that you saw through my attempt to acquire your bloodline as a subservient family. So don't worry, all that you need to do is be sure to eliminate Orochimaru within one year from today.”

 

Sasuke could only grown in anger and frustration at Shinigami. He swore that the god of death had to be a sadist to enjoy inflicting the sort of pain he had caused Sasuke repeatedly under his care. On the bright side, at least Shinigami had help up his end of the bargain and brought him back to life.

 

In Sasuke's foggy and unfocused eyes and mind he could have sworn that there was a pair of squirrels dancing on the branches above him as he fell asleep. After all, all that was left for him to do was wait another couple of hours.

 

 

When Sasuke awoke alive for the first time in almost a year, the first thing that he did was stretch. Finding himself clad in a loose fitting, but functional black traveling clothes with his new sword strapped to his belt he finally felt in control of his life once again. His head was as clear as it had been in Shinigami's realm, his body felt just as fit, and he was immensely pleased that he didn't have a god's laughter raining down on him anymore.

 

He was alive, and he couldn't remember a more exhilarating feeling than this one in his entire life. Sasuke had his second chance and there was no way in hell that he was going to screw this one up.

 

But first, he had to find Mikomi.

 

A sad smile washed over Sasuke's face for a moment before he closed his eyes. He had hurt someone he had cherished in life by allowing himself to die for his petty revenge. He refused to let something like this happen ever again. This time, he would not hesitate, he would not let misplaced desires for power or revenge get in his way.

 

Sasuke would find the person whom had been his anchor in the land of the dead and find out once and for all what he truly felt for her before he bothered with Orochimaru.

 

Sasuke let his senses reach out into the surrounding countryside to pick up the nearest concentration of chakra in his area. He smiled when he sensed what seemed to be a small village roughly four kilometers to the north-east.

A moment later Sasuke was gone, a brief swirl of leaves the only evidence that anyone had ever stood there.

 

 

Pale hands were clenched and a familiar head was thrown back, as if reveling in ecstasy only known to that self same person. A grin wider than any that had previously been worn on the face revealed a smile that would have been very attractive if it wasn't for the changes that had been wrought to the body. Eyes that once had looked like twin pools of obsidian had been changed into a pair of yellowed eyes, the pupils a distinctive vertical slit. Once tanned skin had been reduced to the sickly pallor distinctive to only one man alive.

 

Orochimaru loved the feeling of Sasuke's body. The power, the grace, the perfection seemed to flow from every inch of its incredible structure. Indulging a moment Orochimaru ran a hand from the flawless abdomen that he had acquired up and along his body before caressing the cheek of his new vessel. A quick surge of chakra to his eyes and Orochimaru nearly howled in glee at the sensation of a fully formed Sharingan flaring to life.

 

Sasuke's body was indeed the epitome of perfection, the only suitable vessel for one whose power would soon rival that of a god's.

 

Without a second thought Orochimaru flexed a couple of times before began his little `test run.' Orochimaru quickly sped through his most basic of techniques that involved stretching his limbs into almost impossible angles before he really got into things: sinking into the floor only to burst from it with his body elongated as if he were a snake himself. Jabs and blows cut the air with ever increasing speed until Orochimaru surged chakra along the length of both of his arms and used them a pair of whips to rip straight through the stasis tube that had housed Sasuke's regenerated body for so long. Then he activated the second level of cursed seal immediately.

 

Only then did Orochimaru allow himself to celebrate. Every ninja in the entire Village Hidden in Sound felt a chill make its way down their spine as the echoing laughter of their leader reached their ears. What only served to frighten them even further was massive source of chakra that was emanating from their Otokage's chambers. Only one person's chakra had this much power and this much malicious intent captured within it: their leader had fully awakened his power, and it seemed to be even greater than it had ever been before.

 

As Orochimaru's laughter died away he allowed his body to revert to that of its regular form and allowed the Sharingan to fade from his eyes. With his newfound power he was now absolutely invincible. He quickly strode from his personal chambers into the anteroom where he handed out the missions to the shinobi under his command.

 

“Kabuto,” Orochimaru hissed as he approached his ever-faithful right-hand man, “I need you to begin the next phase of negotiations with Iwa. I need you to try and get them on our side to prepare for an assault on Suna. We need to draw power and attention away from our nation and Konoha once again and the soon that we eliminate Konoha's closest ally the better our position will be when we decide to eliminate that accursed village.”

 

“At once Orochimaru-sama,” Kabuto said as he bowed low to his master, “I will personally lead the negotiations team myself. I am curious as to what exactly you would like me to offer them as a last resort if they refuse our plans for the gravity intensifier device that we were able to salvage from the Ruins.”

 

“Land Kabuto, land,” Orochimaru chuckled as he headed for his personal exit tunnel from the Sound Underground, “that idiot Mosa Hogosha seems to enjoy expanding his territory almost as much as I enjoy collecting jutsu. I'm sure the offer for the northern third of Wind Country where three major salt mines reside will be enough to get his attention.”

 

Another grin split Orochimaru's new face, “I've got other business to wrap us, starting with retrieval my little lost weapon. I might even have enough time to toy with her and teach her a lesson about disobeying her master. Kukukukuku…”

 

Turning on his heal, Orochimaru scooped up the new collar that he had designed specifically for the task of ensuring his control over his wayward weapon. After all, there was no way that she could possibly resist her `Sasuke-sama' could she?

 

 

“Wake-up,” Mikomi murmured to Sakura as she gently shook her awake after the first two hours comprising the first night-watch shift ended, “Sakura, it's your turn to take watch…”

 

After a moment Sakura's eyes snapped open and zeroed in on Mikomi as the disturbance that caused her to wake up. With a partial yawn Sakura quickly slid out of her bedroll, “Alright, gotcha Mikomi. I can never seem to wake up for my watch shift on my own.”

 

Without preamble Mikomi immediately skirted around the fire and headed out towards the nearby forest clearing that she had spotted earlier when they had set up camp. Sakura's eyes followed her as she moved silently past where her bedding roll had been laid out.

 

“You're not going off to train again are you?” Sakura couldn't help herself. Mikomi was really starting to worry her. It didn't matter how well she understood Mikomi's phenomenal stamina - she was used to stamina freaks, after all she had Naruto as a teammate - but training half the night without sleep was going to end up burning her out. So far Mikomi had lasted two and a half weeks torturing herself but it couldn't last. It shouldn't last. Sakura knew all to well what could happen to ninja who over-trained for too long and wore down their limits.

 

Mikomi froze in place for a moment. “This doesn't concern you Sakura-san,” Mikomi almost whispered while she refused to turn around, “I just don't feel like sleeping right now.”

 

Sakura nearly snorted, barely holding it in for fear of waking up the camp, “It is my concern Mikomi! I'm a trained medic nin, not to mention your friend. If this was just a one time occurrence then I wouldn't be so worried, but you've been doing this since the start of the mission. You'll burn yourself out!”

 

“No I won't. I know my limits,” Mikomi answered quietly, at last turning to face Sakura, “And this is the only way I've been able to get any sleep at all. Working so hard that I'm too tired to even think.”

 

Sakura's stomach clenched slightly when she finally saw the tears on Mikomi's face reflected in the firelight. It made Sakura sick to realize how much this whole situation was hurting Mikomi, the way Mikomi's tou-san had hurt her.

 

“I…I,” Sakura began before her words failed her. She couldn't think of anything that she could possibly say that could possibly help Mikomi. “Well…that is…at least be careful Mikomi. We can't afford to lose you on this mission. I don't want to lose you as a friend. Just…only do as much as you need to do so that you can get to sleep, nothing more. Please…”

 

Mikomi felt a fleeting surge of affection towards Sakura as she voiced her concern, one that simply couldn't compete with her more morbid feelings. A wan smile formed on Mikomi's face, “I'll try Sakura, but it…well…this isn't easy. Thanks for being concerned but I don't want to have to deal with any more problems than I already have. I just need time to deal with all of this alright?”

 

Sakura just nodded. She couldn't do anything more than that as she watched Mikomi head off into the forest. Sighing, Sakura moved away from the fire to regain her night vision and prepared for her watch shift.

 

Once both girls had moved out of the clearing Kakashi's eye cracked open. He had heard everything that had been said. Turning over he cast a long and hard look into the woods that Mikomi had disappeared into. If Sakura was finally trying to get an obviously distraught Mikomi to cut back on the nighttime training she was doing then he knew the situation was getting serious. He knew that he couldn't let things continue on this way. Closing his eye, Kakashi decided to go back to sleep. He would talk to Mikomi in the morning about cutting back on her night excursions. He needed to make sure his team was in good shape, no matter what anybody else thought about his decisions.

 

 

Mikomi's hands and feet were a blur as she worked her way through one of the kata's that Sasuke had taught her before she had left the Sound, her body hardly registering the weights on her wrists and ankles. As an extra challenge Mikomi was forcing herself to remain absolutely silent the entire time that she performed the complicated kata. A look of deep concentration was etched into Mikomi's face, although not because of her fighting practice - she could do that in her sleep.

 

No, she was concentrating on something far more difficult: the ability to activate her Tekigougan at will, and, in turn the Sharingan she had somehow acquired. For the entire first week Mikomi had been unable to activate her doujutsu even once causing her no end to frustration. However, everything changed in the second week. By varying the different levels of chakra and the speed it flowed through her eyes Mikomi had finally been able to activate it. Unfortunately, due to her terrible chakra control she still hadn't been unable to regularly activate it.

 

But Mikomi was determined to change that - the fact that it also drove her into a dreamless and thoughtless sleep due to the amount of work was just a bonus. She was sure that tonight was going to be her night. Day after day she had been able to activate her Tekigougan with far more regularity than the previous day. On top of that fact, she had currently been able to willfully activate and deactivate the ability four times in a row without failure. It gave her a goal to accomplish that didn't have her concentrating on her past.

 

Without slowing down Mikomi did a quick rebound from a tree trunk to ascend to the treetops when she felt something catch hold of the flap on her hip pack. The sudden shift in momentum caused Mikomi to spin out of control and miss her landing, hitting her stomach off of a branch before tumbling to the ground. Momentarily out of breath, Mikomi simply sat up and inspected her pouch, shrugging off the damage thanks to her chakra defence.

 

Mikomi momentarily panicked when she realized that the locator disk that her tou-san had given her was missing. Twisting around, Mikomi felt relief rush through her body when she spotted the faint green glow of the display screen of the display disk lying on a few feet away. Snatching it up Mikomi clutched it to her chest for a moment before confusion washed over her.

 

`What the hell am I doing?' Mikomi thought, holding the disk as far away as possible without dropping it, `This thing is from tou-san…and I'm pissed as hell at him…aren't I? I should just throw this piece of shit away.' Again, the familiar struggle rose up in Mikomi. Again she couldn't find the will in her to throw the damn thing away.

 

Finally, Mikomi just gave up and held the disk to her chest and started to cry once again.

 

`Why can't I just let him go? He didn't even come to rescue me…' It hurt so much to continue to carry around something that connected her to her tou-san. But at the same time it felt so right to do so. Mikomi couldn't stand her indecision anymore. She had to make a choice: ditch the accursed disk, or meet with her tou-san once again.

 

Mikomi leapt to her feet and drew her arm back to hurl the disk into the next country when she froze. Again she couldn't do it. Collapsing to the ground emotionally exhausted, Mikomi sat with her back against the nearest tree and activated the locator disk.

 

 

Tsunade had one hell of a headache.

 

She could take on an entire Anbu or Jounin squad and escape with only minor scratches. She could go toe to toe with the most powerful ninja's alive and have a decent chance of taking them down. Sometimes she could even manage to tackle that never-shrinking stack of paperwork in her office and escape with only a couple of paper cuts.

 

But she couldn't stand having to sit in a room with a bunch of wining old codgers that did nothing but bitch about the way she was running things in Konoha. In fact, they left an effect on her even hours later after she had escaped from their clutches.

 

Tsunade couldn't believe what a truly insufferable bunch of idiots the Konoha council had become in the last few months. It seemed as if no matter what she did, nothing was done quite the way that wanted things to be done. There seemed to be no identifiable logic behind the council's behaviour as far as Tsunade was concerned. They had sought her out and celebrated her inauguration to the position of Hokage as much as every other citizen in Konoha. They had even remained quite supportive of her actions and decisions up until about a year and a half ago.

 

And that worried Tsunade even further as that was close to the time when the Sound had instigated the conflict between Mizu and Kumo. She couldn't figure out what had caused such an obvious shift in attitude. It felt as if the entire council had one day decided that she no longer served any purpose or use to Konoha as a whole. As if they had decided to simultaneously reverse their opinion of her on a whim.

 

It was more comforting than the thought that someone had somehow gained the power or leverage to manipulate almost the entire council.

 

However, the comments that Koharu had made inside her office a couple of weeks ago continued to bother Tsunade. The fact that he had openly suggested that Danzo from the Roots section of the Konoha Anbu may have been a better choice for Hokage candidacy…Tsunade didn't want to risk over-thinking the situation but it certainly seemed to indicate that Danzo was somehow behind this change of attitude. They had bickered and argued and picked holes in every major operation or situation that Tsunade had been involved with since the Mizu/Kumo conflict. It was bad enough to try and deal with civilians who decided that they suddenly had a case of the `clevers' and wanted to tell her how to deal with military operation. It was another thing entirely to try and deal with their sudden bigotry.

 

It was that same bigotry that had left her with the headache she was sporting, now two hours after her meeting with the council. They had spent almost an hour putting together individual cases for Naruto and Mikomi labeling them both as horrific deviants, and in Mikomi's case a traitor. Terms such as `demon child' or `homicidal maniac' were tossed around as labels for both teens. On top of that the council was essentially ignoring everything that she said in defence for both of them.

 

But what really caused Tsunade's headache were the requests that had been made by the council in order to solve the `problem' of the two deviants. Both of which were entirely unacceptable.

 

Mitokado Homura had brought forth the council's suggested resolution for dealing the problem of Naruto. He had outlined in exquisite detail the multiple ways they had deemed appropriate for ensuring that they had control over his existence. Since they considered Naruto to be an entity that would soon grow beyond their control as the Nine-tails' influence inside of him grew - if it hadn't already taken the youth over - the easiest course of action would be a summary execution. The council thought that the life of one ninja was a small price to pay to ensure that the Nine-tails would never get the chance at revenge on Konoha.

 

Another option that they had presented to Tsunade was to turn the boy over to Roots so that they could properly deconstruct Naruto, eliminating any harmful influences, and the recast him as the ultimate weapon that Konoha could deploy against its enemies. All they needed was to give Danzo enough time to `work his magic' and they would have a Kyuubi powered foot soldier to fight for Konoha.

 

The final suggestion in regards to Naruto was the most peculiar one of all: turn the energy of the Nine-tailed fox into a battery to generate the recently developed `chakra bombs.' Since they were designed for the user to prepare them ahead of time by sinking an immense amount of chakra into the device, more than could generated by most ninja's in one sitting, they wanted to use the fox to mass produce the bombs.

 

The ultimatums the council delivered for Mikomi weren't much better.

 

Once again the first suggestion that the council made was to execute Mikomi on the grounds of being a traitor and a spy for the Sound and for the Akatsuki group. Failing that, they could simply set up a situation in which they could declare her as a missing nin and make an excuse to send hunter nin to eliminate her.

 

The second suggestion was to turn Mikomi over to Danzo's Roots for character programming.

 

A shiver crept down Tsunade's spine as she thought about the recurring connections to Danzo that the Konoha Council continued to make. There was no way that she could treat this repetition as nothing more than coincidence. They didn't exist in the ninja world and they sure as hell didn't exist in this situation.

 

“Ah hell, I need a drink,” Tsunade mumbled as she slumped back in her chair in the Hokage office. Pulling her emergency bottle from beneath her desk Tsunade expertly undid the stopper and allowed some of the sweet liquid to trickle down her throat. Spinning in her chair to look out her windows, Tsunade contemplated what her next course of action should be.

 

 

`I wonder…should just kill all of them?' Orochimaru thought as he eyed the campsite that Team Seven had erected beside the Fire Daimyo's caravan, `It would be so easy to tear them apart and make sure that they didn't bother me ever again…'

 

Orochimaru cut his musings short with a brief scowl. He had allowed himself to become distracted once before during his designs to eliminate Konoha by leaving evidence of the Kazekage's death behind. Failure was one embarrassment that he refused to incur upon his reputation ever again. Besides, the mindless slaughter of the camp might delay his search for Mikomi long enough to allow for her to escape. That, and there was the infinitesimal possibility that one of them might get in a lucky shot and force his retreat. This particular team had been absurdly lucky in facing him in the past.

 

Killing Team Seven could come later. First Orochimaru had to take care of business with Mikomi. Casting his senses out, Orochimaru scanned the nearby woods to try and identify Mikomi's chakra signature. He had felt her chakra had been fluctuating a great earlier, before he had reached the camp but it had rapidly died away to an almost unnoticeable level.

 

Of course, it didn't matter how much someone suppressed their chakra, Orochimaru could find it. `There,' Orochimaru thought as he felt a faint signature just north of the camp, `She isn't very far away at all.'

 

Slithering through the forest Orochimaru crept towards Mikomi. He made absolutely no sound: no leaf was rustled, no twig was stepped on, and not even a branch was bent. Orochimaru noticed that Mikomi was sitting against a tree and was facing in his direction, so he immediately slipped into the shadows to avoid any chance that Mikomi' might notice him.

 

However, the problem of how to approach Mikomi still needed to be thought through. She already thought that Sasuke was dead, so approaching her outright and demanding that she follow him would likely prove disastrous. Remaining completely silent would yield similar results, especially if she spotted him.

 

Orochimaru grinned once again. Perhaps openly walking up to Mikomi and emulating Sasuke-kun's behaviour would be the best course of action. If he could convince her that he had found a way to survive his `death-like' state then she would be his once again.

 

Circling clockwise to Mikomi's position at the foot of the tree, Orochimaru made sure that he wasn't going to be approaching Mikomi from a direct line of sight. Another grin split his face. Now all that he had to do was make sure that his little weapon received his `gift' of a brand new collar to keep her so much closer to her master than ever before.

 

 

First five minutes passed. Then ten minutes. Finally twenty minutes had passed and Kitoushi hadn't shown up. Mikomi wasn't sure exactly how she felt about that. A deep seated anger and annoyance flared up inside of Mikomi since he wasn't showing up immediately and nearly tried to deactivate the disk before she settled down. It wasn't all that much, but at least he had abided by her wishes to stay away from her until she contacted him.

 

Another couple of tears leaked out of Mikomi's eyes. Kitoushi had done as she had asked and left her alone even though he obviously hadn't wanted to let her out of his sight after they had been reunited once again in Konoha. It struck Mikomi with the same clarity as the twig snapping off to her right that her tou-san wanted to become a part of her life again despite all of his mistakes.

 

Mikomi's head jerked and to the right. A twig snapping off to her right and there was no chakra signature to go along with it?

 

Leaping to her feet Mikomi dropped the locator disk and pulled a pair of kunai from her hip pouch before she had even gotten to her feet. Staring hard into the tree line to the right of her position she could make out the shadowy outline of a person slightly shorter than she was. Feeling the sudden rush of genetic information rush into her brain once again, Mikomi felt a grim satisfaction at being able to call up her bloodline limit at the start of a potential combat situation.

 

But when the shadowy figure stepped out into the moonlit clearing Mikomi's heart froze. Uchiha Sasuke's pale face was watching her, the face of the boy…no man that she had seen killed before her eyes. A dead man was standing in front of her. That meant that somebody had to be using a Genjutsu.

 

Feeling as if she were about to retch Mikomi instinctively channeled electrically charged chakra into her kunai and hurled them at the figure before trying to dispel the Genjutsu. The illusionary Sasuke - for that's what he had to be - easily dodged the pair of sparking kunai and also failed to disappear under her attempts to dispel the Genjutsu.

 

Panic surged through Mikomi and she threw another pair of kunai at the figure before she noticed two things: one, she could see the faint outlines of movement that would show where her opponent is going to move when the Sharingan was activated, and two, the Sasuke figure has a shocked expression etched on his face. Awe quickly spread across Mikomi's face. If she had somehow activated the Sharingan once again, and the figure in front of her wasn't showing any of the usual chakra signatures associated with a Genjutsu that meant he was real!

 

Mikomi hardly felt the impact her knees had with the ground as her legs suddenly gave out. She could now feel the Sharingan spinning in her eyes due to the chakra surging through them and she knew there was no way she could deny it. The Sharingan couldn't be fooled as Sasuke-kun had told her time and time again.

 

And that meant that Sasuke was alive! Tears once again sprang up onto Mikomi's face as she stared at Sasuke with raw pain and disbelief in her eyes, slowly changing to hope, and then ecstasy.

 

“Sasuke-kun…is that…is that…you?” Mikomi croaked out, her throat feeling as if somebody was trying to choke her the entire time. Mikomi was so intent upon examining Sasuke's chest, remembering how half of it had been torn away, that even with her Sharingan activated she didn't notice the distinctly un-Sasuke-like grin that flitted over Sasuke's face.

 

“Sharingan Mikomi…you have the Sharingan?” Orochimaru asked as he slowly approached the kneeling girl. He knew it was from the shock but he couldn't help but feel a thrill at watching his weapon quake before him on the ground, kneeling for her master, especially since she had obviously acquired the Sharingan somehow. Perhaps it was a final gift from Sasuke? Orochimaru shook his head, quickly reorienting himself to act more like Sasuke, “I'm sorry Mikomi-chan, your Sharingan surprised me for a moment. I didn't mean to take so long to come and find you but I only recently -”

 

All the breath left Orochimaru and he nearly reacted by trying to snap the girl's neck as she leapt from the ground and clung to him once he was within arms reach.

 

“Sasuke-kun, Sasuke-kun, Sasuke-kun, Sasuke-kun…” Mikomi kept on repeating as she buried her face into Orochimaru's chest. She couldn't believe it. She had dreamed over and over again, wishing without any real hope that Sasuke would be alive, that she'd get a chance to see him again. She had never allowed her delusions to become anything beyond wistful fantasy, but now he was here. He was alive!

 

Orochimaru couldn't help but sneer in disgust - and a little bit of pain - as Mikomi clung to him as if she never wanted to let go. The fact that she was using her ridiculous strength to crush his ribs was actually starting to hurt, and he was sure that if it wasn't for his own abilities to conform his body into a more malleable shape like a snake he would have suffered from several broken ribs.

 

“Mikomi…chan…hurting…can't…breathe& #8230;” Orochimaru gasped out, not giving Mikomi time to notice the fact that his chest was flexing inwards slightly, all the while patting her back and rubbing in between her shoulder blades to comfort her. Another disgusted look flittered across his face as he had to repeat his false plea once again before Mikomi responded to his words at the same time he let himself fall to his knees himself.

 

Mikomi's tears welled up anew, all sense of emotional exhausted long since overshadowed by the raw elation she felt from the moment she had realized she wasn't dreaming. She finally relaxed her death grip on Sasuke when he fell to the ground in front of her, breath coming in short gasps. She almost moaned when he started to slowly run his hand through her hair, the affectionate touch one that she had longed for ever since the trip to Kumo to instigate the Kumo and Mizu conflict. It was pure bliss, the way Sasuke slowly stroked her hair over her one shoulder.

 

“I'm so sorry that it took me so long to come back to you Mikomi,” Orochimaru said, no longer able to hid the grin the distorted Sasuke's face into a shape that it had never held before Orochimaru had begun to reside in it, “It took me so long to repair my body. I had believed that every plan and technique that I had used was going to fail until that fateful day when I was brought back from the brink. I'm sorry I took so long to return…”

 

Orochimaru slid the malleable leather collar inscribed with hundred of seals to make it a hundred times more effective than the previous shock collar he had affixed upon his weapon's neck. With a slight surge of chakra the nearly invisible catch opened up to allow him to make his next move.

 

“Yes Mikomi-chan,” Orochimaru said as his voice hardened, Mikomi remaining oblivious in his arms, “I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to do this. After all, I meant to do this a long time ago but never had the opportunity to do this.” What was once a grin enjoyment transformed into one of sadistic glee on Orochimaru's face as he slipped the collar into place around Mikomi's exposed neck.

 

The second that the collar latched in place Mikomi froze, icy fingers of fear shooting down her spine. She remembered this feeling, a feeling that she had tried as hard as she possibly could to forget. Her hands were shaking as if she was trying to move through a snowstorm without any warm clothes on. Then she touched that sickeningly familiar sensation of a collar clasped around her neck. Eyes wide with fear she threw herself away from Sasuke and looked straight into his eyes. Eyes that now looked disturbingly familiar.

 

It hit her like a punch to the guy: Orochimaru's eyes were in Sasuke's head. It was impossible to forget those disgusting, snake-like eyes.

 

“Yes Mikomi-chan,” Orochimaru said, his sadistic tone finally breaking through Sasuke's pleasant voice, “I've been meaning to take you back to the Sound for a long time…”

 

Mikomi started to scream. The sound had barely left her throat before Orochimaru had finished sealing. The electric impulses slammed into Mikomi like a freight train, here affinity to electrical chakra doing nothing to ease the searing pain of being electrocuted as she had so many times in the past, cutting her voice off immediately. Every muscle in her body felt like it was tensing up so tightly that it would tear away from her body as she continued to convulse on the ground, the collar preventing her from escaping into blissful unconsciousness. When she finally thought that she might pass out from lack of oxygen the collar suddenly inflicted a new torture on her, forcing her diaphragm to suck oxygen into her lungs and remain aware. Aware of the horrific pain that felt as if it was trying to burn her nerve endings throughout her entire body.

 

For ten full minutes Mikomi was delivered a harsh reminder of her past, the pain and agony that she had suffered at Orochimaru and Sadisuto's hands beginning that terrifying night almost four years ago.

 

Just as suddenly as it began, the pain ceased to course through her body, even if her muscles continued to convulse out of her control. She cranked her neck to face Orochimaru, a hate like none she had ever felt since Itachi had killed her precious Sasuke-kun marring her features. That fucking slithering bastard had taken Sasuke's body and perverted it for his own uses!

 

“Kukukuku…” Orochimaru laughed as he stared down at the squirming and pain wracked girl, “I hope you enjoyed your little present Mikomi-chan, after all you won't have to be feeling anything else if I don't want you to. You see, this collar is…upgraded…to ensure that no nasty or unwanted individualistic actions are taken.” Orochimaru's glee only increased tenfold as he watched the expression of horrified realization sweep of the fourteen-year-olds face, “That's right Mikomi-chan, that collar has the ability to suppress your ability for free thought or action…”

 

With that last taunt spoken his hands sealed once again and activated the collar's secondary ability, forcing Mikomi's mind under his control and rendering her unconscious at the same time. Casually, Orochimaru picked Mikomi up and slung her over his shoulder before disappearing off into the night.

 

Finally things were starting to go his way once again.

 

 

It took until morning before Kakashi finally realized what had happened. When he had awoken to take his watch shift he hadn't been all that worried about Mikomi having failed to return to her sleeping pad. She'd spent several previous nights failing to return to sleep so it hadn't been too unusual. But the fact that she hadn't returned to the camp at sunrise started to really worry him.

 

Even the Fire Daimyo and his entourage had noticed her peculiar absence and kept on casting searching glances in their direction at the noticeable lack of the brooding red-eyed girl. This wasn't good.

 

“Sakura, I need you to go north toward that clearing Mikomi mentioned earlier when we made camp and check up on her,” Kakashi almost barked, “I'm not certain, but the fears you mentioned earlier about her possible collapse may have come true. Bring her back here, please.”

 

Sakura nodded silently as she finished closing up both her pack and Mikomi's before she started to head away from the roadside campsite and into the woods.

 

She hadn't even made it into the tree line when a black blur caused everyone to leap into position around the Fire Daimyo and those who had weapons drew them. Naruto was never one to keep his mouth shut shouted his recognition.

 

“Hey, you're that bastard whose Mikomi-chan's father aren't you? Kitoguy or something. What the hell are you doing here you asshole?”

 

There was an obviously wild-eyed and frantic look on his face as his eyes bore into the three Konoha ninja that were guarding the Fire Daimyo, his eyes locking onto Kakashi's revealed Sharingan, “Where is Mikomi? I have to know! She activated the locator beacon that I gave her a couple of weeks ago and I found it just north of your camp but I can't find her anywhere! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?”

 

“What the hell are you talking about Yakubyougami,” Kakashi snarled as he drew a kunai, “Haven't you already done enough harm already? You tell us where you took Mikomi to or else I won't hesitate to cut you down.”

 

Kitoushi flinched at hearing the name he had taken upon joining the Akatsuki thrown into his face, “I didn't take my daughter anywhere! I'm looking for her cause I asked her to activate this,” Kitoushi threw the locator disk to Kakashi before he continued, “if she wanted to see me again. I snuck into Konoha to see her and I could have taken her then if I wanted to force her to come with me! I would never do that to my own daughter after all the pain I've already caused her!”

 

Kakashi, Sakura and Naruto all felt a rush of fear travel down their spines. They didn't know where Mikomi was and her father was frantic because she was missing and he couldn't find her. Especially since he had given her some kind of tracking device so that he could find her if she wanted to be found.

 

“This is bad,” Sakura almost whispered, “She was training in a clearing just north of here. Where did you find it?”

 

“Just where you said she was training,” Kitoushi said, his heart rate starting to pick up once again and perspiration sloughing down his back, “What the hell is going on here?”