Tempt Fate | Orochimaru x Reader

13 - Day of Departure

You stood in the middle of the clearing, the few weak rays of the rising sun meeting your figure. You were here early, it was always like this when something important was going to happen, you would wake up early and then be unable to fall asleep again. A yawn escaped your mouth, you really didn't know what to expect from this journey.

"Let's depart." Once again, his sudden appearance made you jump, but you tried acting calm. "Yes of course." And without another word he started running towards the forest, you following closely behind him.

-

It seemed like an eternity jumping from tree to tree. You couldn't help but think back to the days when this was your daily life. Going on missions, fighting other ninjas. Especially your last mission, which was the reason for all of this. In the end, looking back at it you were glad it turned out like this and you could learn about the truth. You imagined yourself unknowingly living in the village and fighting as one of their shinobi. Shaking your head you tried to get rid of these thoughts. In the end it turned out for the better.

The journey was pretty uneventful so far but it wouldn't stay that way. Soon you heard tree leafs shaking and branches Cracking. You looked to Orochimaru for advice on what to do but his reaction wasn't what you expected. "Try your best." He smirked and vanished. Dammit, a real fight so soon, on top of that it seemed to be more than one enemy so you were clearly at a disadvantage.

You decided to hide behind a big tree on one of it's branches, noticing at the sounds that the enemies were running along the forest ground. There. You spotted them and also a leaf symbol on their headbands, there were 2 of them. So soon you'd meet them again.

You took a kunai with a bomb attached out of your pocket, aiming it at a little in front of them and throwing. Only one of them noticed, jumping back before the explosion, the other running straight into it. The first one immediately connected the dots, looking the way the kunai was thrown from but seeing nothing. Being confused, staring at the location, his mate, a little bruised up came running back trying to warn him but the first one couldn't react in time. You ran towards him with your katana in hand, you slashed it through his right shoulder. "Dammit." He cursed, holing his shoulder with his left hand and taking a few jumps backwards, applying pressure, trying to stop the bleeding but the wound was too deep.
"Aaaaaaargh!!" You heard screaming from your right side, instinctively holding up your katana with both hands trying to protect you from what was coming. His kunai collided with your katana, making a clashing sound.

This was the perfect opportunity to try something you've been working on. You took your stronger hand off the Katana and before he could overwhelm you, you took a swing with your fist and milliseconds later, it collided with his face, making his left cheek explode. He fell back hard from the punch, landing on the forest floor motionless. Before you could collect yourself you heard fast steps approaching from behind, not being able to turn around fast enough to see what was coming you. You felt a strong pain in your upper back. This sensation of pain made you lose control. Bastard.

You violently turned, ignoring the Kunai he was still holding onto, getting dragged through your back. You let your Katana fall to the ground and took both hands, gettingg ahold of his neck. He looked at you with an indescribable amount of fear in his eyes. Without hesition you focused the biggest amount of chakra onto both your hands, making the blood vessels in his neck exploding all at once, even so much that his head flopped to the side, barely holding on to his body. You let go of him and the rest of the motionless man fell, making a dull sound. You weren't done yet. Turning around, you saw that the other guy was still laying on the ground, now concious, clutching his cheek, or what was left of it and grunting in pain. You slowly walked over and started kicking his face until it wasnt recognizable anymore and he was completely dead.

Then you just stood there staring at your work. Your were covered in blood from head to toe. At first you only felt empty but then slowly it started sinking in. You took the lifes of two guys who probably didn't even have anything to do with your clan, they seemed relatively young. You completely lost control of yourself, completely giving in to your inner rage. Your breathing started getting faster, you wanted to cry but nothing came out of your eyes. Sure you fought before, but you had never taken anyone's life.

There were so many thoughts and emotions at once you didn't know what to do. You didn't notice anything in your surroundings until you felt a gentle embrace, protecting you from it all. A cold hand patting your head softly, his soft sounding voice lulling you in. "You did good. Don't worry, you will get used to it. Always rememeber that this is the only way to reach our goal." You enjoyed the feeling of being safe and protected.

His arms slowly left your body. You couldn't look up at him, you felt weak and unstable. "It's for our goal..." You mumbled, repeating his words, trying to get a grip. "Exactly. Now come on, this journey is far from over, it will bring us so much closer to what we desire." His words almost feeling like they put a spell on you because you slowly started regaining your composure. You looked up at him, determined. He was grinning confidently, which wasn't very unexpected but it definitely was reassuring.

-

You went on like before, running threw forests, over bodies of water and along paths.

The sun had already set and the air got colder, Orochimaru in front of you came to a sudden halt. Distracted, you almost bumped into him but managed to react fast enough. You looked at him, wondering what he had to say, stopping so abruptly out of nowhere. "It's getting late, let's set up camp for now." You sighed in relief, you're muscles were sore and the dried blood had been uncomfortable for a while now. The two of you walked a little further, Orochimaru leading the way, you following, as usual. Until you reached a small river, running through the woods. "Get yourself cleaned up." He ordered, you were more than happy to obey.

Walking a little further away from the camp to get some privacy, you finally felt alone so you slowly started to strip of your clothes. It felt so good to finally get the blood and sweat drenched fabric off your skin. Now completely nude, you let your body sink into the icey water. You shivered but tried your best to ignore the cold reaching every inch of your skin. It wasn't relaxing at all so you hastily washed off all the blood, staining the water red.

-

As you stepped out of the water you looked at your clothes, noticing your mistake, you forgot to bring your bag to the river, you were just too happy to finally get rid of this weight that you left it at the camp, as soon as the opportunity arose. You mentally facepalmed.

Looking at the dirty clothes on the floor you considered your options. You were definitely not going to put these back on. You sighed. Just underwear will have to do the job. You pushed your shame aside, put your underwear and shoes on, grabbed your clothes and started walking towards the yellow-ish glow which probably indicated the fire Orochimaru had set up. Here we go...