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Kabuto supposed that he ought to feel sorry for the poor bitch. Her only goal in life had been to to pick daises and to live out her life among them until Orochimaru had plucked her from the woods. She had no skills. No ambition. However, sometimes, life was not so kind. Kabuto knew that fact personally.

Yet, for how pathetic she was, Misaki aroused something else in him all the same. Something wet and bitter; a feeling she could scarcely name. Envy? After all, she had discovered her family because she had a family to discover. He himself had not been so lucky.

In a way, they had been both alike. Both had been cruel pointless victims of amnesia, but at least Misaki got to know her name and had been reunited with a bloodline that she could call her own Kabuto had not been so lucky.

No one ever managed to collect him from the orphanage. Or any of them for that matter.

Kabuto hissed in displeasure. Her very memory dug up details he would rather forget. Kabuto knew that her hair was soft and smelled of rose petals. It was loose and glowed like sunlight. Her eyes were a distinct mint green. Rather mellow and calm, and not bright and piercing.

Misaki had been a grimy stone polished into a gem, and she had been unaware of the whole process. Yet, Kabuto was sure the dirt was still ground into her skin. Kabuto was sure that it would never leave. It was also loathsome that she could barely perform jutsus. In truth, Misaki resembled a a startled fawn lumbering around rather than being a fair kunoichi.

Just to know her was to loathe her. She was just so pathetic. Now, she had good memories to replace the unpleasant ones. But little Misaki wasn't better than him. The Hidden Leaf was pathetic for even accepting her.

Kabuto idly wondered if she had pleasant dreams in her bed now or nightmares that lingered. He wondered if he was in any of them.

Sadly, Kabuto had no one to to share his opinions with. They were far too trivial for the one who sat in the room with him.

"Do you ever wonder if she will betray us, my lord?" Kabuto couldn't help but ask.

To be honest, Kabuto hoped that she would dare. Misaki was such that she could be easily eliminated. Even his lord had to see that she possessed a weak will and a foolish heart. What use did he really have for her?

Orochimaru put a finger to his lips attentively. "Wait and see Kabuto-kun. Wait and see. Patience. Evidence is indisputable."

Kabuto knew that he couldn't push further at the moment.



---



The ceilings soared above her and Misaki swore that her heart swelled high enough to touch them. An impossible yet believable feat.

So. This was the Ninja Academy. It was clean, bright, and busy not to mention big. Many things that she was not used to.

All that was left to do was to walk inside the classroom. There were no strings involved at all now. The necessary paper work had been filed. Misaki wondered how they had done it with all the incomplete information.

Is it was because she was related to Ibiki? Was this what privilege felt like? Misaki didn't know; she had never had it before.

As soon as Misaki walked inside and told the teacher her name, she was automatically assigned a seat. He barely looked at her. The gesture was just so...normal. She was being treated like everyone else.

But under the glances of curiosity that surrounded her, she shrank away like seedling caught in a cold wind though Misaki was relieved to see that they were more curious than disparaging. Misaki would be nineteen this fall and this classroom was mostly full of eleven and twelve-year olds. Some curiosity was to be expected.

Misaki had to catch up to where the rest of her age group was. How else would she ever be called a jounin? How else would she be good enough for her new friends?

It was a pleasant that she knew how to write when a paper after a paper had been passed to her. Someone had bothered to teach her, but she could scarcely remember them. She wondered when or if she had been in school before. Had her parents taught her? Well, though her past was hidden, it had not been erased. She was living proof that something or someone had nurtured her.

All in all, her first day went smoothly as a kunoichi. Here, she had trained teachers instead of Kabuto's mocking face.

And Ibiki.

Misaki knew that she shouldn't have looked, but on her way home, she could have sworn that she could have seen another sly white snake on the path out of the corner of her eyes. Of course, when she looked again, it had already fled under the bushes. Or was it her imagination? Her good mood was already beginning to deflate as icy doubt seized her. She was beginning to feel cold even under the bright sunshine.

When she finally arrived home in her apartment, she collapsed on her bed. How could she do this everyday? Her chakra already felt drained.

You're not like them!

She didn't know if it was her mind or her heart, but she knew that she herself spoke it. Her inner voice could not be fooled. And it was correct.

Not even being alone under the blankets could still her beating heart. Her hair stood attention; a response to danger She closed her eyes and groaned in her makeshift prison as she shifted her body. Misaki supposed that she would wait for the dark to arrive...

Oh, the dark. She had almost forgotten about the information that she needed to obtain only had two days to get it. It would be Thursday tomorrow.

At the moment, Misaki wasn't sure what she was she was. She was in between two states of being. All she could do was to keep them separate in balance or until one managed to tip the other.

Yet, she wanted to be a Leaf kunoichi if she could be anything. That was her choice. Yet...

She wanted to stay with her new friends. As for Ibiki, she was sure that she would warm up to him.

Still, Misaki knew that she couldn't live completely without strings. Still, she wondered if it was indeed possible to have both. Did she truly have the luxury of choice with the pale man and Kabuto tracking her?

Sometimes, she wished that she could tell Ibiki the whole story, but she knew that she ran the risk of be punished or killed. to fear from her own uncle was a reality. Kabuto had often told her that she had a poor understanding of reality.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Misaki stopped breathing.

"Misaki, are you in there? It's Ino."

Misaki raised her head. It occurred to her to just ignore it.

"Yes?" she weakly called out in spite of herself.

After a moment's hesitation, she reluctantly dragged herself to her feet. It was going to be a long night.

"Maybe we should just let her rest," an unfamiliar voice suggested. Misaki couldn't identify who it was.

"I want to ask her!" Ino insisted.

Her footsteps betrayed that she wasn't asleep. She figured that she should just get it over with.

Misaki opened the door to reveal Ino, Choji, Sakura, and someone else she had never seen before. He wore a hood and dark glasses.

"Hi, Misaki. We were just wondering if you would like to celebrate your first day at school. Maybe a little party?"

Misaki honestly didn't know how to respond. She had never been asked that question before. She had never been asked to an actual party before.

"That would be...good."

Apparently, the universe wouldn't let her just languish. Why?

"What do you like to eat?" Ino asked impatiently. "What's your very best food?"

Misaki thought. She would have to think. It was almost inconceivable that she had the indulgence of choosing for a change.

"I like dumplings and maybe some soup..."

Ino literally sparkled. "Great then. Let's go out. Unless you have a previous engagement."

Misaki was embarrassed to admit that she had no money, but she knew that they would find out. Her charades couldn't last forever.

Misaki was strangely sober when she walked into the night air.