Bound to You (Naruto)

Chapter Eighteen

He calmed himself down and noticed the animals begin to relax and a few wild hares approached him. His dark gaze flit to the strange young woman, her colorless hair appeared to glow in the moonlight, giving her an ethereal appearance. "What's that mark on your hand?" He asked her curiously keeping his tone even knowing she'd scold him if he continued barking at her.

"Hm?" Tsuki turned to him curiously and held up her hand flashing the crescent moon at him once more, "This?"

Sasuke nodded.

Tsuki looked off in the distance, in the direction of their temporary shelter, with a small faraway smile dancing across her lips, "It's a secret." She giggled.

Sasuke hurled a kunai at her in annoyance and leapt back as the coyotes snarled and lunged at him once more. His gaze flit to the pale young woman as she caught the kunai with ease, her lips pulling into a frown. He withdrew his sword to fend off the coyotes only to stare in awe as the pale woman vanished from sight and appeared before him catching his blade with her bare hand stopping him from attacking the coyotes. Her faint glowing titanium eyes narrowed into a glare.

"You'll never be able to defeat Itachi if you can't learn to control your emotions, Sasuke." She chided him, tightening her hold on the blade as she felt resistance. The coyotes halted their attack and looked to the starlight girl acting as their protector. Blood dripped from the palm of her hand.

"SHUT UP!" Sasuke snarled and attempted once more to pull the blade from her grip only to stare in awe as she tightened her hold causing a steady stream of blood to pour to the ground making all of the animals uneasy.

"Enough!" Tsuki raised her voice and a raging gust of wind whipped past her picking the irate teen up off his feet causing him to release his hold on the hilt of his sword, sending him flying.

Sasuke landed flat on his back near the entrance of their temporary shelter, a small cave tucked in the side of a rocky mountain range. The impact of the fall instantly knocked the breath from his lungs and he coughed and sputtered in an attempt to regulate his breathing as he lay sprawled across the dried red earth outside of the cave. He looked upward as he sensed someone approach and felt his heart stutter in his chest as he spotted Orochimaru glaring down at him.

"What did you do to Tsuki?" The older shinobi asked with a hiss, his lethal golden green reptilian gaze boring into the irate teen.

"Me? She just sen-." He cut off as the man with the long straight ebony hair caught him by the front of his shirt and wrenched him to his feet.

"She's hurt." Those reptilian eyes narrowed into slits.

"I'll go get her." Kabuto offered as he stepped out of the temporary shelter and threw a wary look at the now very irate pair. Sasuke's bad temper could not rival that of Lord Orochimaru's when someone dared to harm Tsuki.

Orochimaru released his hold on the teen, dropping him to the earth and vanished from sight in an instant. Kabuto and an irate Sasuke raced after him, in the direction Sasuke had just flown from. They paused as they neared the spot where Sasuke and Tsuki had been training.

Tsuki was surrounded by wildlife all standing around her protectively, once the lethal shinobi arrived, the animals moved away giving him room. Blood pooled on the cracked earth streaming from the deep gash in the palm of her hand. Her faintly glowing titanium eyes flit in Orochimaru's direction as he approached her slowly.

"I'm sorry." She whimpered softly, "I was carel-." She cut off with a squeak as he swept her off her feet.

"Are you alright, Tsuki?" Orochimaru asked her softly causing Kabuto and Sasuke to exchange curious glances.

"I-I'm okay." Tsuki blushed.

Orochimaru's gaze was drawn to her bleeding palm, the wound was deep enough it had hit bone, he'd known from his own discomfort that it had caused her a great deal of pain. The wound slowly began to seal shut, but he was worried about the girl. She'd lost a lot of blood; her skin was paler than usual. Her pale glowing eyes flit past him to where Kabuto and Sasuke were hiding.

"Sasuke, you need to apologize!" She attempted to wriggle out of Orochimaru's hold but found his grip unbreakable and gave up after a few meager attempts.

"What?! You sent me flying!" Sasuke grumbled as he and a reluctant Kabuto joined the pair.

"Not to me, to the animals, you scared them." Tsuki scolded him causing Kabuto to blanch slightly expecting the teen to lose his temper and try something stupid but was more than a little surprised when the teen sighed in defeat.

"Alright, calm down." Sasuke huffed before looking at the gathering of wary animals, "Sorry for scaring you." His dark gaze shot to the strange young woman in the legendary sannin's arms. "Happy?"

Tsuki grinned. In all honesty, she was happy. Orochimaru relied on her more and kept her at his side more than before, Kabuto hadn't been mean to her in two years and even the bratty teen was starting to warm up to her. It had been a long time since she'd had a family and she'd feared she'd forget what it felt like. She had a family again, a somewhat violent unorthodox family, but it felt like family all the same and it made her happy.

Video- "Don't Speak" Cover By New Years Day (original song by No Doubt)... thanks Pandora I needed this in my life