Orochimaru's Office
"So what did you two think?" Orochimaru eagerly asks his two students.
Sasuke and I are each sitting down. Sasuke is sitting on an uncomfortable wooden chair and I'm lounging in the throne.
"And why do you have that Alvarcus?" Orochimaru adds on.
"What, you think I wasn't going to add a badass looking throne to my furniture collection? I've always wanted a throne and you handed one to me on a silver platter. It was just sitting in that castle growing dusty." I rub the arms appreciatively. "Also can I keep the book they were after? I'm a fan of the author."
"Fine. I don't even know which book it was, an underling set up the entire affair." Orochimaru sighs. "I don't know why I didn't expect you bringing the throne with you."
"He's also looking for an armchair." Sasuke blandly adds. He's ignoring the book because he knows who wrote it. "He's manifested the weirdest hobby ever."
"Yes, yes, let's move on." Orochimaru straightens and eagerly looks at us again. "So, what did you two think?"
"You need better shinobi." Sasuke dryly says. "I only took down four. I used genjutsu to make the rest defeat themselves. It was easy, too easy. I expected better. I had no problem hiding in the shadows the entire time and I went against the recon group. They had to have sensors."
"I didn't even touch one of them!" I sob. "All my fun! Gone! Just like that!"
"You had fun." Sasuke points out. "You wouldn't quit pestering me until I relented and let you play King. We could have dealt with them easily as a pair and had some random person be the King but you wanted to let one group through to go on the whole monologue thing. I can't believe I let that happen, I even wore that damn suit. Never again!"
"Wait a moment." Orochimaru looks at Sasuke. "You defeated the recon team. The assault team confronted Alvarcus and then surrendered. So who defeated the demolition team?"
"Dokuso. One of my Summons." I am so proud of her! She brought down eight shinobi all by herself! Given she's naturally camouflaged and probably poisoned them with her concoctions but still! I bet it was one hell of a fight. I really need to watch her work sometime. "She left the moment she brought Arachne the bodies. Said something about needing to tweak a few poisons. She didn't even say goodbye either!"
"Well I'll have you both know that I deem you ready for missions again." Orochimaru's face is lit up in joy. "To think that the both of you have progressed so far that defeating one of my best squads is 'too easy!'"
"Hold up." I cut in. "They were some of your best?"
"Believe it or not, yes." Orochimaru smiles fondly at his memories. "They've proved themselves over and over in the War Games. I consider them to be one of my best assets. They've triumphed over some strong B-rank threats and a few low A-rank ones too."
"You might want to reevaluate that." Pfft yeah right. They're not one of his best, they can't be. "We got them to surrender. They didn't even have the guts to fight me!"
"Can you blame them?" Orochimaru says. "They recognized you."
"So?" I'm confused. "Why does that matter?"
"You've made quite a name for yourself." Orochimaru snickers. "After all you're the Pr-"
"NO!" I leap out of my throne and cut him off. "I was joking when I said that! Please say it didn't stick! It sounds so lame! LAME!"
"Who would have thought that the Prince of Sound is a joker!" Sasuke doesn't even attempt to hide his laughter.
"NOOOOOO!" I wail as I fall to my knees and shake my fist at the heavens. "NOOOOOO!"
At least it's better than Muffins.
...
With Alvarcus and Sasuke, Outside Orochimaru's Office
"Hey Alvarcus." Sasuke casually opens up conversation.
"What's up?" I ask him. Usually he'd be ranting about how utterly crazy and ridiculous I am right now.
"You've got a tail." He subtly snags a senbon out of his holster.
"Yeah, she's been following me since we got back to the main island." I reply.
"Want me to get rid of her?" He rolls the senbon between his fingers.
"Nah don't worry about it. She's harmless."
Sasuke pins me in a stare. It's one that he frequently uses on me, it's his 'are you stupid' look.
"Okay fine she's harmless to me." I amend my former statement. "Probably? I think?"
"And what makes you draw that conclusion? If she's here then she's a kunoichi." Sasuke flicks his senbon back into the hostler.
"I met her yesterday along with her team. They all decided to befriend Orochimaru-sama's kid."
"Oh. Really?"
"Yeah, we even had this huge conversation about me before they even knew it was me. It was super hilarious yet terribly awkward all at the same time."
"Bet that was fun."
"It's certainly a first for me. So yeah, I doubt she's got anything malicious planned."
"I'll be going then. I've got to get out of this penguin suit then burn it. Then burn the ashes." Sasuke and I part ways, he's heading to his room and I'm going towards my lab. I want to check on the liquids to see what chakra levels each has.
"You know I know you're there, right?" I call out behind me.
A head of brown hair with two cat ears is poking around the corner of the hallway I just turned down. She's barely even trying to hide. "Yes."
"But you're still sneaking after me? I don't mind if you join me."
"It's more fun this way." Her ears twitch playfully. "I'm a cat, it's what we do. Prowl around after our prey! Er friends! I meant friends! Uh... meow?"
"Is this how everyone else feels when they deal with me?" I mutter to myself. Then I raise my voice so she can hear me. "You can drop the act around me Maiko. You don't have to act like a cat at all."
"What makes you think I'm acting?" She gives up on hiding around the corner and starts to walk over to join me as her tail dances behind her.
"Because I'm a much better actor than you. We have our own masks that we hide behind. You have been ridiculed because of your new feline additions and instead of hiding in shame because of them you've embraced it. You've decided that the best way for the teasing and insults to stop is to act like you actually are part cat now. The sad thing is, I think it worked."
"But I am a cat now. Thanks to your pops." She quips back with her usual attitude of playfulness.
"No you are human. I refuse to accept that you're anything less. I don't care if you have cat ears and a tail. I don't care if you have a turtle's shell on your back. I don't care if you're changed into anything, animal or otherwise. You're human."
"Hm." Her playfulness dwindles. She's starting to show the real Maiko. "What makes you feel that way?"
"If you're not human then what does that make me?" I coolly reply.
"I don't follow." Maiko and I start to walk down the hallway side by side. "You're much more human than I am."
"You would think so, wouldn't you?" I get a faraway look in my eyes before I focus them back on her. "You have a handful of new additions. You didn't lose anything, all you did was gain. But me? I lost everything, it's been replaced. There's more something in me than there is human now. By a very, very large margin. So that's why I say you're human. Because if someone who only has a couple animal traits isn't human, then what would that make me?"
"You know you're a lot more insightful than you look." Maiko has dropped all of her catlike mannerisms. "But there's something you got wrong."
"Do tell, I always enjoy thought provoking conversations like this." Sure it's fun to act like an idiot all the time but I do like having these talks too. There's just something cool about discussing a topic so passionately with another person.
"I enjoy acting like a cat." Maiko playfully swats at me and I block her. And like that Neko-chan is back. "It's not all an act, I think it's fun!"
"Well I can relate to that." I cave in and let her land a swat on me so she'll stop trying. "I'm known for being unorthodox myself."
"But really though, I am part cat now." She gets slightly more serious. "Have you heard the phrase cats have nine lives?"
"Yes?" I wonder where that came from?
"It's actually not wrong. Some of the more... mystical cats actually do have nine lives, it's a status symbol among them. The further on in your lives you are the older and wiser and powerful you are. It's become such a key part to those mystical cats that every single cat, mystical or not, can sense how many times another has died. It's a way of knowing who is strong and who is weak, who to respect and who to protect. It's the duty of those who have lived multiple lives to defend those who haven't."
"That's neat." Where is she going with this? "I never knew there was truth behind that legend."
"There is. And I've inherited that trait." She steps in front of me, forcing our eyes to meet. She's barely fifteen centimeters away from my face, all I can see is hers. Her large round eyes searching into my hidden ones, looking for something. "You're on your second life."
"You're very insightful yourself Maiko." There's a hint of danger in my voice. "It's best that no one knows that piece of information outside of us."
"It is what draws me to you. You are strong and I am weak. It's only natural that I seek you out." She slowly closes the distance between us, millimeter by millimeter. "Where others feel fear, I feel warmth. Where others feel terror, I feel safe. When others want to run away, I want to claim you as mine."
"Everyone that gets close to me dies." I smoothly say despite my growing concern for my virtue. Is that concern? Yeah let's say that's concern. "For some strange reason it's usually the females that die. I've already lost three, Sakura, Gina and Tayuya. One of them I killed myself."
"Just because they've died doesn't mean I will." She wraps her arms around my neck, pulling me in closer still. "Let me claim you."
We're a hairsbreadth apart.
...
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