~*****~

"Okay, so anyway! What is the password again?" Naruto asks loudly, his arms crossed over his chest and a triumphant smile on his face.

"Forget it, I know it's you!" Sakura calls out. "You made it!

"Naruto!" Sasuke shouts. "Get out of here! What're you thinking?! You don't know what you're up against! Hurry! Go now! While you still can!"

"So, Naruto... You managed to escape from my friend. Well done." The woman jeers, still in her coiled position around the tree branch. Naruto frowns at her. I swallow thickly.

"Okay, okay. I don't know what's going on here, but you've been picking on my friends, and I don't like that!" Naruto calls, pointing down at the vile snake woman. "So, you better sliver on back in your hole, snake lady, before I make a pair of shoes outta ya!"

Sakura slumps down, sitting on her knees while she holds onto my leg, clutching tightly. She looked upwards in concern as the tremors in my body got worse. "You can have it!" I gasp as Sasuke shouts. He reaches into his pouch and pulls out our scroll. "The scroll, right? That's what you want!" He calls, tossing the scroll into his other hand.  "Alright then! Take it and leave us in peace!"

"Wh-Sasuke! Are you crazy or what?!" Naruto shouts. "We're just gonna hand the scroll over to the enemy?! No way! What's wrong with you!"

"Shut up and stay out of it!" Sasuke snaps.

The woman leans upwards, propping her hand on her disfigured hip. "Very wise. Very sensible. Sometimes, the helpless prey, if they are to save their own skins, realize their only hope is to distract the predator with something even more precious!"

Sasuke tosses the scroll, and I found myself getting angry. Fire burned in my stomach like nothing else. And the fear was replaced by it. The tremors in my body stopped. Naruto was quick to intervene and catch the scroll before the snake woman could get to it. Naruto jumped off of a nearby tree and lands by Sasuke. "Stop playing the damn hero! Just leave it to me!" He says as Naruto rounds on him, punching him straight in the face. He growled out. "Stupid fool! You don't know what your doing!"

Naruto breathed angrily from where he stood until he finally spoke. "I may not know the password, but I know who I am!" My heart thumps a bit and I'm calmer than I was a few moments ago. I grasp onto my kimono and breath out a breath of air. "You're the one I'm not so sure about. How do we know you're who you say you are?"

"What do you mean?" Sakura asks, standing up besides me. "It's him! Don't be so stupid!" Sakura scolds.

"What sort of nonsense is this?!" Sasuke growls. "It's me you loser!"

"Liar..." I snap, receiving a shocked glare from the duo.

"Liar!" Naruto affirms. "You may look just like him.... You may sound just like him... But... There's no way you're the Sasuke I know!" Naruto roars. Sakura gasps from besides me and I'm seething by now. "I don't care how tough a fight you been through! Surrendering! Giving up the scroll! When did Sasuke become a coward! You keep saying I don't understand what's going on, but I do! You've choked! That's what it is!"

The Snake Lady chuckles. "Sad... But true." She makes a creepy face before speaking again. "It doesn't matter. As far as the scroll goes, I can simply kill you and take it." She bites her finger and draws a line of blood down her arm. Naruto pulls out his kunai to charge at her.

"Let's see you try it!"

"Don't!" Sasuke screams. "Naruto, no!!"

"Summoning Jutsu." The woman weaves signs. The wind picks up as a large snake appears under her. My heart pounds as another voice rings out in my head. 'Show no mercy, or you will die....' 

"Sakura! Move!" I snap. She immediately leaps away as the snake lady looks at me, her eyes chilling me to the core. 'Tiger - Ox - Monkey - Rabbit - Ram - Boar - Ox - Horse - Monkey - Tiger - Dog - Tiger - Snake - Tiger - Ox - Monkey - Rabbit - Bird '. As I weave signs, water is sucked out from the trees around me, withering away each one. The water forms a large ring behind me. "Water Style: Giant Vortex Jutsu!" I scream. Like a cannon, the jutsu blasts forward, hopefully wiping out anything in its path. The water slowly lowers, and a ripple of relief washes over me when the snake woman is nowhere in sight. Until a slimy hand whips out and wraps around my ankle. I let out a startled shriek as I'm hung upside down.

"Ren!" Everyone screams as I stare into those devil eyes.

"I know you. You're that imbeciles child. The legacy of Shun Senju." The woman jeers. "You'd be a perfect candidate, but maybe another time. I'm after someone else."

"H-How do you-" My sentence dissolves into a scream as she flings me aside. I hit the tree with such force, I thought my back would break under the pressure. I let out a gasp of pain, before slipping from consciousness....

~*****~

The walls around me are lit with a few torches, with a dim purple fire flickering across the walls. I take a step forward, looking downwards at the ripples of water below my feet. "Come... this way..." A soft feminine voice echoes out, luring me inwards. I hesitantly make my way down the next hall. It was a long hallway, and it started to smell like the ocean. I entered a room with a large gate in the middle, with a heavy duty deal. A large eye opens, the bright blue illuminating the area I stood. "Young child.... my vessel... How pretty you've grown..." The large being coos, a long tentacle pressing up against the cage.

"Wh-What.... What are you?" I whimper, taking a step forwards. "Are you... Ameonna?"

"Yes I am... I am the very reason your family was killed. You see...." I swallow hard, staring up at the creature. "They worshiped me.... I was a god amongst the Yukimura.... But... I grew out of control... So they had to imprison me with in the direct lineage of the Yukimura's Main Branch."

"M-Main branch?"

"Once a grand, and celebrated clan... to be torn down the very Kekkei Genkai they possess." The creature blinks its eye before reopening. The room illuminates in a bright light, and I stare at the physical body of the Ten Tailed Beast. Or in her case... Ten Arms. "You are the last of the main branches blood, and one day, we will be molded as one and I will die with you. But until then, I need to keep you safe, so that I may prosper..."

"I thought tailed beasts were supposed to be.... You know... Bad..."

"Oh, my dear.... We are only bad when the world around us believes us to be.... But for my vessel, I am only as bad as she wishes." I sigh out a little before taking a step towards her, placing my hand on the gate. "You and I will be together for a long time.... There's no point in my resisting my vessels wishes."

"Th-Then... Please... Protect my friends if they are ever in danger...." I plead, shivering as her arm slips out of the cage and wraps around my waist.

"Anything you desire..."

~***~

I sit upright with a gasp, feeling the pounding in my ears. Looking over, I gaze at Sasuke and Naruto laying besides me, both unconscious. "S-Sakura!" I call as I spot her sitting at the entrance of the make shift hut she built. She turns to me and gasps out in relief, crawling over to me and pulling me into a bone crushing hug.

"Oh Ren!" She cries, sobbing into my shoulder. "I thought- I thought you were-"

"Get some rest... I'll keep watch." I state softly, patting her back. "You look like you've been through hell."

"I need to tell you something..." She whimpers, going over to Sasuke. She pulls back his collar and I stare at a strange symbol imprinted on his skin. I press my finger against it, and I could feel the malicious intent behind it. I gasp and pull away.

"Wh-Where did he get that?" I pant, palming my chest.

"Th-That snake woman.... It turned out to be a man named Orochimaru..." She sobbed again, still shivering. My insides went cold. That Orochimaru. The one Kakashi had told me about on accident. He was here.... But why?!