Me: you updated yesterday! You don't need to post this chapter just yet.
Also me: sees ranking.
Me: posts chapter.
Number 20 in Naruto!!! Thank you guys so much!! Enjoy!!
Orochimaru was less than pleased.
Toph sat on the floor in front of him, feeling his heart rate fluctuate. The sannin was restrained, chained into a straightjacket and the floor. His hair had been chopped off, and seals were painted on both his skin and tags stuck to him.
His fingers had been taken care of especially, each individual digit encased in an odd sort of steel glove. He couldn't move them at all.
"You're different," his voice no longer purred like it had when he was fighting the old man. "Both the way you attacked and the way you turned your back."
Toph tilted her head. "Why did Konoha want you so badly?"
The Sannin paused. "Why would I tell you?"
The Earthbender scrunched closer in on herself. "Do you have anything better to do?"
He paused. "Good point."
They sat in silence for a little while, then Orochimaru shifted slightly. "I'll play a little game with you. For every question I answer, I get to ask you one."
"Okay," Toph felt a smirk grow on her face. "Why do they want you dead?"
"I'm a genius that puny minds like theirs will never be able to understand. I performed experiments, morally questionable, sure, but everything I did Konoha used. They would be behind almost a decade in medical advancements if not for me." He chuckled dryly. "Yet, simply kill a few children and you instantly become the bad guy."
"So you slaughtered kids," Toph felt nauseous. "In the name of science."
"Technically no," he purred, a hint of his old bravado returning. "I experimented on them first. It's common knowledge-... unless it's not."
She couldn't reply, could only rock back slightly in shock, mind whirring.
That's why they want you dead, Toph realised.
"And it wasn't just in the name," Orochimaru hissed. "I've learned so much since then. Their sacrifices were worth it."
She shivered. "You're sick."
"Of a sort," the Sanin laughed. "Now, how were you able to break through my barrier?"
Toph was silent for a moment.
"Is that why you defected from the village?" She asked, her fingers rubbing on the cold stone floor.
"Yes, yes," he said impatiently. "That barrier was impenetrable. No one could've gotten through it. Tell me how."
Toph cocked her head. "I don't think I will."
He seemed utterly flabbergasted for a second, then he snarled at her. "We have a deal!"
"One that you set," Toph acknowledged. "For every question I answer, I get to ask one. There was nothing in there about me answering."
There was a long moment of silence.
"You're quite sneaky," Orochimaru begrudgingly admitted. "Like a little rat."
Toph shrugged. "I come from a family of merchants. Contracts like that are in my blood. Care to make a different deal?"
"When I get out of here, I'll kill them," Orochimaru decided. "Very well. Answer for answer. I ask a question, you answer it. Then you ask a question, and I'll answer it."
Toph checked for any loopholes. It seemed he had learned his lesson, though. He had been so specific that she couldn't even give the answer to a useless question, like she had been planning.
"All right then," she agreed affiably. "But I go first."
"You went first last time," Orochimaru protested, a bit childishly.
"And you're a kid killing creep with a terrible haircut," Toph remarked. "Let's stop with the banter and get back to buisness."
He didn't ask how she knew about his hair, and she didn't offer (Anko had told her between cackles). "Very well."
"What's your plan?" Toph folded her arms and leaned forwards, ignoring how her skin got goosebumps. "I know that someone like you wouldn't do anything spur of the moment."
She felt his heart rate spike for a moment, then he let out a slightly delighted, definently unhinged laugh. "Well, after I became a missing nin, I discovered a problem."
She raised an eyebrow.
"Missing nins don't get paid like they would in the city they left," the sannin told her. "So thus I was tragically forced to become a mercenary."
Silence.
Toph connected the dots in her head. Mercenaries were killers for hire. Orochimaru was hired.
"Who wanted you to kill the Hokage?" She asked.
"Ah, ah, ah." Orochimaru interrupted. "I think it's my turn. Let's see, what shall I ask?"
"Anything you want," Toph chirped. "My turn?"
There was another pause as the sannin realised what she'd done. Toph had answered a question he hadn't really meant to ask.
She couldn't keep the smug grin off of her face.
"You're too clever for your own good," he hissed, clearly displeased. "Fine."
"Who commissioned you to kill the old man?" Toph tilted her head.
"His wife," Orochimaru said with a hint of glee. "Of course, I took the liberty of also wiping out their village. Everyone but her, in the end."
Toph's eyes widened. She had misstepped and he had outsmarted her that round. She applauded a few times, the sound echoing off the walls of the cold room. "Very sneaky."
"I'm afraid you'll have to be a bit more specific next time, little miss Bei Fong." The sannin seemed delighted. "My turn?"
She waved a hand. "Sure, sure."
"Where are you from?" He asked. "I would've thought that my spies would have picked up anyone as interesting as you a long time ago."
Toph shrugged. "I'm not really from around here. You see, I was born in the Earth Kingdom, in a fairly large city to the southeast of Ba Sing Se. That answer your question?"
Then, before he could catch her the way she'd done to him- "by the way, that wasn't my question."
He was still as he puzzled over her reply. "Do you mean the land of Stone?"
"Not your turn!" Toph all but sang. "Now, what is the name of the man who hired you to kill the Hokage. Feel free to skip any lackeys and just tell me the boss's name."
He huffed a laugh with no humor behind it. "His lackeys are pretty important, though."
Toph stored that tidbit away but didn't reply.
"Fine, fine. His name is Shimura Danzo, the councilman and the dearly departed Hokage's very best friend."
Toph's eyes narrowed. "Is he the one-?"
"Not your tu~urn," Orochimaru mimicked.
"Wasn't talking to you," Toph shot. She closed her eyes and felt for the coolness that marked the arrival of that stupid Onryo. "Is he the last?"
There-!
He is...
"Of course," Toph hissed. "Why can't you get someone else to do your dirty buisness for you? Why me?"
"There's a ghost standing by you," the sannin commented.
Toph heard the spirit hiss. "Onryo, actually. And it doesn't like you, the old man, or this Danzo person, so it decided it would royally screw over all of you by dragging me into it."
She could almost smell his fascination. "You're spirit touched?"
She sighed and waved a hand through where the light brushes on the ground signified the Onryo stood. "Apparently. Last question."
He ran through what he had gotten out of her, then snorted quietly. "Very well."
"What's a shinobi to you?"
"A shinobi," he mused, thinking aloud. "Is a covert agent for their village. A good ninja knows the signs of espionage, deception, and surprise attacks, and can pull them off themselves. They cannot be weak, or have the luxury of morals. They have a duty to the shinigami, the god of death, and no other, except the one they give their loyalty to.
"Once they meet someone stronger, they die, and those who commanded them will have their name carved in a stone and forget them." Orochimaru spat. "A shinobi is a liar and a murderer, and nothing will change that."
Toph stood abruptly. "Then who are you loyal to? Certaintly not the man you just killed."
"Miss Bei Fong," the sannin said, all together too calm for the torrent of hatred he had just hurled at her. "I've sworn myself to science and discovering and claiming eternity. You on the other hand, have no master. Certaintly not to the man you just let me kill."
"You're wrong," she whispered.
"Am I?"
Toph spun on her heel and left that cold, empty room and the insane man in it. His unhinged laughter chased her down the halls of the prison.
"Toph-sensei!" Sakura sprang up from the ground she had been sitting on outside the outermost gate. Toph waved off the guards, then grabbed her student by the arm.
"Let's go sit in the dirt and the sunshine," she suggested in a tone that left no room for debate. "It was way too cold in there."
▪▪▪
"So Sakura," Toph asked, listening to her student spit curse words. "How would you define a shinobi?"
The two were in a training ground. Toph was lying on a large boulder, sunbathing/sleeping, and Sakura was working on her delicate Earthbending. It was a warm day out, but neither of them had worked up anything even resembling a sweat.
"Well," Sakura set her rock glove down onto the ground. "A true shinobi is one who learns all, who hides in the night and strikes their enemies down in silence. One who has mastered chakra control and who comes out of fights knowing they did what was necessary to protect or serve the village. I think."
Toph tried to connect what the girl had said to the vile things that had come out of Orochimaru's mouth. She closed her eyes and wiggled her toes, feeling the warmth of the afternoon sun.
The chill of the cell still clung to her skin, though.
She hurriedly changed the subject. "How're you doing with your other shinobi studies?"
Sakura froze.
Toph sighed. "You can't just rely on Earthbending for everything. You need to have many different tools in your kit. Especially in this ninja world, with all of your chakra and knife throwing and the like."
"But I don't need ninja skills," Sakura complained. "I already have perfect chakra control and I'm okay with a kunai. What else would I need?"
Toph sat up. "You said there are clans that have kekkai whatsits, right?"
"Yes, but-"
"I can almost guarantee you that they've learned how to fight both with and without it. They won't base everything on it in case they loose it. You need to do the same." Toph set her cheek on her hand, resting her elbow on her knee. "In fact, why don't you try honing skills that aren't Earthbending and see how that works out for you in the long run?"
Sakura hopped to her feet. "But Toph-sensei! Why would I need to?"
Toph sighed. "Let's say you've lost your bending. Now what?"
Her student scoffed. "Not possible."
"It is." Toph felt her voice sharpen. "It's happened to me before."
Sakura floundered. "Um. Well..."
"It would be good if you didn't just have one thing to rely on," Toph tried to rein in her feelings. "If you do, you'll likely end up dead."
"Okay," Sakura bowed her head. "I will do as you've told me, sensei."
Toph nodded, then reclined back onto the rock. "Good. Is there anything else you think a ninja needs?"
"There is one," Sakura said slowly. "I read it in a book, but no ninja I've ever seen uses it."
"What is it?"
"Subverting expectations." The rosette began to explain. "Misleading people based on appearance and actions."
"That sounds useful," Toph remarked.
"Yeah," Sakura turned over the rock glove on her hands. "I think you do that a lot, albeit unintentionally. People look at you and go, 'oh, what a poor helpless blind girl,' even though you can whip pretty much anyone in a fight. I'm not blind, but do you think that maybe I could do it too?"
"Definently," Toph said. "Play the fool. It doesn't mean you are one, and if even one person thinks you are, they'll be rattled when you show them your true colors. It could be enough to win a fight beforehand."
She touched a foot to the ground and considered her student. "It's almost a disadvantage that you don't have a disability, when you think of it that way."
Sakura bent the glove around her hand. "All right then! I'll work on it!"
"Yeah," Toph smiled in her general direction. "You do that. In the meantime, why don't we find Anko and get some dango?"
Her student cheered.
▪▪▪
Danzo looked down from a rooftop at the three women, eating sticks of sweets as they walked through the streets. They didn't notice him as his target, Toph Bei Fong, shoved her student, Sakura Haruno. The rosette jumped, almost dropping her dango.
The other two laughed, ignoring the girl's distress. Neither of them were looking up, for who would be on guard for an enemy in their own village, in a time of peace?
Then again, he wasn't an enemy.
"I want her," Danzo didn't spare a glance at the ROOT squad kneeling behind him. "Make her disappear. Hiruzen's death was unfortunate, but it is also an opportunity."
He did not voice the rest of his thoughts; that if there was no Hokage, he would be able to seed more ROOT into ANBU, to take more clan children then he had ever dared to before.
If anyone unenlightened had heard him, they would have had him imprisoned for treason. If they had been a clan head, they might have ventured to simply strike him down on the spot.
He slid his hands into his sleeves and felt his lips quirk up. "Make it look like she's defected or just an unfortunate accident. You have three days."
He would honestly have preferred the Haruno girl; she had the same ability and was already trained. Yet, something told him Hatake wouldn't take his student vanishing very well. Given previous orders, the man was actually very likely to know who had taken the girl and track her down.
Toph Bei Fong, though...
She had been in Konoha for less than three months. Although she may have made a few friends, they wouldn't know where she had gone, or even have known her well enough to search for her.
Except maybe the student. But Danzo would take his chances with her. The weakest in her class, a paper nin, and practically useless.
The ROOT bowed lower, then vanished into the night. The oldest in the group, Anko Mitarashi, spun suddenly to search the rooftops with keen shinobi eyes.
She would see nothing.
And soon, Toph Bei Fong would be his.