Relentless (Book 2)

Foolish- Erika

"Where is my mother?" Erika demanded cooly. She refused to reveal any emotion to the man sitting on the throne before her.

He sneered. "Somewhere deep under our feet."

"Is she really alive?"

"You ask too many questions," Orochimaru said.

"Two is not many," she snapped. "She is the only reason I came to his place again. I would never  have come here otherwise. Is she alive?"

"Yes,"  he hissed in reply. "If only slightly. The life she lives is not one to envy, I'm afraid."

Erika's hands balled into fists. "Let me see her."

Orochimaru raised a slim, dark eyebrow. "She is a stranger to you," he remarked.

"I don't care," she replied. "I deserve to know where I come from."

"Sometimes one's origin is not always a pleasant tale to tell."

"It's still worth listening to."

Orochimaru raised his eyebrows. "Kabuto," he said, addressing the boy standing off to the side. "Bring the wretch to me."

"Gladly," he replied with a dark, amused look in Erika's direction. He left the room gracefully.

"Give me the scroll," Orochimaru said the second he was gone.

Erika subtly gripped the pack on her shoulder tighter. "That's not how it works. We had a deal. You free her and I give you the scroll."

Orochimaru sneered. "Both you and the scroll lie under the roof of my hideout. That was my aim altogether. You foolish girl." He chuckled. "Sometimes I wonder how you could ever be my daughter. You never think. There is no way out of here. You've doomed yourself."

Erika scowled. "We'll see. Why else have you summoned me here? Besides the scroll, what reason is there for you to keep me imprisoned here? What use is there for me to rot in a cell? And why was that your intention for me as well as my squad members?"

"Our purpose for imprisoning you before was not random. My aim was to cut you off from the outside world. Cause your abilities to mature more quickly than would ordinarily."

"Why did you need our abilities to develop?"

"To use you as weapons, of course," Orochimaru replied.

Erika did not frown. She was not sad that her father had no thoughts toward her as a daughter but only as a weapon. She was not sad because it had never been any other way. Erika didn't know what it felt like to experience the love of a parent. But there was something that came quite close. The love her senseis always showed her. She didn't need affection from him, therefore did not expect it.

"You see," Orochimaru continued. "Your DNA is a component of both I and your mother's. It's unimaginable what potential abilities you wield."

"She's powerful, then," Erika stated.

"Very," he replied, eyes sharp.

"By what standard? Is she more powerful than you?"

He chuckled. "No one is more powerful than I. But, alas, your mother possesses abilities that are quite different  than mine. My talents lie strongest in the summoning of great beasts as that sensei of yours, Kakashi Hatake, is probably familiar with. Your mother, on the other hand, has strengths that lie elsewhere. Chiefly involving a firm grasp on the control of weather patterns."

Erika attempted to keep her facial expression from becoming more intent. "Weather patterns, you said?" she asked.

His eyes nearly sparkled with malice. "Yes. Her jutsus in that field were beyond which even I could perform."