(Naruto x Reader)- My nendo, my ninja way

Chapter 10

A/N: Thanks for reading everyone, don't forget to vote! ❤️

I wake up in the sand village hospital. It's nighttime, and I can see a sandstorm outside the window.
Ow. My arm and my neck hurt. This sucks.
Kakashi sits in the corner of the room, and when he sees I'm awake he puts his book down.
Oh shit, that means he's serious!
"Y/n. You're awake."
He says, and I sit up, although it's difficult. "How did I get here?"
"Gaara carried you the rest of the way. He felt guilty, since he was the one that injured you."
"Oh." I look down at my hands, that are now bandaged.
"I heard you had to use your ultimate feral mode. Must have been a pretty intense fight."
I nod. It seems like Kakashi sensei is strangely interested in the fight. "I also heard that strange marks appeared on your neck during the fight."
"W-what?" I ask, self consciously touching my neck.
"It's a curse mark. It's from Orochimaru."
"O-orochimaru? Who's that?" I ask, confused.
"Orochimaru is an evil snake person. He wants to destroy the leave village."
"Woah, what? How did I get a curse mark from Orochimaru?"
Kakashi shrugs. "Maybe it has something to do with that snake you fought in the Forest of Death."
I think back on it. Maybe he's right! Wait... how did he know about the snake? I never told him about it...
I look up at Kakashi, who watches me with a strange look in his eye.
"Kakashi sensei... how did you know about the snake?" I ask, suddenly feeling something is wrong.
Kakashi, or not Kakashi stands. "Well, I guess it's no use trying to use this disguise anymore." The strange person pulls down Kakashi's mask, but pulls off his skin as well, to reveal pale skin, too pale to be human.
Alarmed, I jump out of bed, but i'm not sure if I should attack
He slithers out of the kakashi skin like a snake. He has long black hair, and a rather attractive face with pretty purple eyeliner. He's very attractive, and he looks both young and middle aged at the same time, in a way I can't explain.
The pretty man licks his lips. "As you may have guessed, I am Orochimaru."
The mark on my neck burns slightly. "What do you want with me?"
Orochimaru smiles. "Well, that remains to be seen. For now though, you have too many friends too close to you. We will meet again." With that, I suddenly feel dizzy again. I try to fight it, but I feel helpless as I slide onto the floor. As my eyes slip closed, and the last thing I see is Orochimaru looking down at me. "Until we meet again." The last thing I see before I lose my consciousness is Orochimaru kneeling down and licking my face. His tongue is awkwardly long, so he barely has to lean over.

I wake up, this time it's daylight. I'm back in the hospital bed. Was it just a dream last night? This time, Gaara and Rock Lee are in the room, as well as Sakura.
I sit up, I have a headache, but it's only dull. I put what may or may not have happened last night to the back of my mind, it was probably just a dream.
Lee notices me first. "Oh Y/n, you're awake!"
I nod. "Morning Lee."
Sakura looks up at me and smiles. "Oh, Y/n, I heard what you did to protect me. Thank you."
I blush, and try to look away. "Oh! Of course! I would fight like that for anyone! Except Sasuke." I add under my breath.
Gaara gives me a look. "I'm... sorry about earlier." The word sorry seems hard for him to say.
I nod. "It's okay. We both just... wanted to protect the people we... care about." I don't say the word love. "Maybe we're more alike than we think."
Gaara looks at me with his heavily lined eyes slightly narrowed. "Not quite sure about that."
I smile. "Whatever, just don't try to kill me again, okay?"
Gaara shrugs. "No promises."
Lee smiles. "Well, I'm glad you two are making up. So... since we're here, what about that village tour?"
"Oh, I almost forgot. Sure." Gaara says coolly, getting up.
"If you don't mind, I'd like to join." I say. "Some fresh air will probably help me."
"Well then, let's go on a tour."

Gaara leads us out of the sand village hospital, and into the village. It's full of large structures that look to be made of compressed sand. Gaara points to a back alleyway. "That's the spot a group of kids ran away from me after I tossed them a ball. Oh, and this is the street I killed a drunk guy on. Oh yeah, and that's the rooftop where my uncle tried to kill me, so I killed him."
I am very concerned. "Uh, there aren't... regular landmarks around here?"
Gaara shrugs. "I've never done a village tour before. These are just the important places to me."
Lee walks up to Gaara and slips his hand into the bright red haired boy's. "I'm sorry you had to go through all of that."
Gaara blushes, his cheeks turning brighter than his hair. "Thank you." He says softly.
I let myself walk behind a little bit for the rest of the tour, as Gaara and Lee walk together, holding hands. They make a good couple. I'm happy for them.
I spot Kakashi and guy sensei standing near the entrance to the village, and decide to leave Lee and Gaara to have some alone time, as I would only be third wheeling anyways. I walk up, and the two stop their conversation.
Guy gives Kakashi a thumbs up. "Well Kakashi! I have to go do a workout! Be back soon!" He says before galloping off.
Kakashi turns to me. "Y/n, you shouldn't be wandering alone right now."
"Why not?" I ask, confused.
"We just found out that the Kazekage has been assassinated, and was replaced with Orochimaru. Apparently he's been dead for quite a while. Luckily, he was revealed and is now long gone."
My blood seems to chill. "Orochimaru... you mean, the snake guy? With long dark hair and yellow eyes with pretty purple eyeliner?"
Kakashi's one visible eye widens. "How did you know that?"
"I-" My headache suddenly gets worse, and my curse mark starts to hurt a little, and I instinctively bring my hand up to cover it.
"Let me see." Kakashi says, and I show him my neck. I wonder if there really is a mark there.
His cold hands trail my neck until he finds it. Kakashi takes a breath as he looks at it. "This is a curse mark."
I nod, covering it again with my hand. I look away from him.
"That curse mark will give you chakra, but be careful using it. Curse marks are unpredictable, and you don't want to rely on that power. Especially not when using your ultimate jutsu, that jutsu is dangerous and hard to control already."
"It's fine, I can control my ultimate jutsu just fine."
I can tell Kakashi knows I'm lying, but he doesn't press it. "Just don't rely on the chakra from the curse. We'll talk more when we get back to the village, okay?"
I nod, keeping my eyes down.
I can't believe what happened last night was real. Orochimaru really does exist. But what does he want from me?