Ko quickly ducked dodging Sasuke's sword then swiped her legs under Sasuke's making him fall to the ground. She rose pointing the tip of the sword on Sasuke's neck giving him a victorious smirk.

"Now that was a bad idea letting your guard down like that." She said offering him a hand which he took. "Don't leave your feet unguarded, if your opponent has the opportunity to slash at your legs, you're done for. They have a choice between your femoral artery or achilles tendon; one slice to them makes you a goner. How about we take a break then move onto taijutsu?"

"I don't need to work on my taijutsu." Sasuke informed.

"I know that but you're not the only one who has to train. I have a lot of training to do in a year and training you in the process isn't making it any easier." Ko said with a hint of irritation as she turned her head in the other direction catching Sasuke by surprise.

"Tsk I didn't ask you to," he said looking at the ground.

"Well too bad because I'm forced to."

Sasuke looked up glaring at her then turned his back to her and sat down. Ko rolled her eyes then laid down looking up at the ceiling.

"When we're done with my training, we'll use the swords against but you'll be able to use your sharingan; you'll learn faster if you can copy my movements." She said breaking the silence.

Sasuke spun around to face her with an irritated look. "Why didn't we start that in the first place?!"

"Just to remind you how weak you are without your sharingan." Ko said with a smirk. " See, when I was captured, I let my guard down and it was a terrible mistake. So, I didn't want you to do the same. Even though you don't like it, I'm still your sensei and I feel obligated to have you learn from my mistakes rather than you making the same."

Sasuke's expression softened seeing her in a new light. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he was starting to respect her. She did take training seriously and was a great sparring partner unlike Naruto and Sakura. Ko always came at him with the intention to kill, something he needed to be prepared for.

"This is wasting my time, why do I have to learn this?" He questioned harshly still acting irritated.

"Because Orochimaru and Itachi are both master swordsmen. Orochimaru will teach you how to wield jutsu with the sword. You have a lightning affinity, that will work well with a sword. When you finally face Itachi, he might use a sword against you and no kunai is a match for a master swordsmen. Lord Orochimaru has his reasons Sasuke," she explained as she looked at the ground. "That's the first thing you must know about being here."

He was silent for a while trying to read her expression, but he guessed she was sad.

"Is that why you still follow him? Despite his abuse and neglect you still think it's for a reason? You could've stayed in the village." Sasuke finally replied thinking about his own father.

Ko let out a laugh.

"If I stayed, I would be either dead or in the interrogation room looking at Ibuki's scarred head for the rest of my life. If I stayed, Lord Orochimaru would've came back for me sooner or later to kill me." She said reaching up to hold her necklace. "He could drain my chakra completely making me utterly defenseless." Sasuke noticed something change in her eyes, she looked scared after uttering those words. "Tsunade was catching on anyway, she would've gotten evidence sooner or later. To answer your question, I don't know if he has a reason, but I hope he does...now let's get back to training, we've wasted enough time."

Sasuke got up and handed Ko his sword, she walked to the end of this room putting the swords on the shelves then faced Sasuke who was already in the air ready to attack her. Ko stepped to the side just before he could strike making him roll onto the ground then quickly twist around ready to punch her. She caught his fist then lifted her right knee to hit his stomach but Sasuke kicked her away.

Ko stumbled back but composed herself then ran at Sasuke. They both collided kicking and punching each other giving them no time to recover. Ko swung her right arm towards his face but he caught it instantly. She used her left arm next only to be caught once again. Sasuke brought up his knee as she struggled to get out of his grip then kicked her across the room making her land on her back.

"Your attack pattern is the same every time. Right left right left kick with your right then repeat; it's predictable. Your speed is also terrible, it was easy to see what you were going to do next." Sasuke informed with a cocky tone. "There's not enough strength in your left punches compared to the right. Whenever you know your punches aren't working you start to kick."

"Ugh this is annoying. I know my speed has always been terrible but I don't know how to fix it." Ko said lifting her torso so she could sit up.

"Think dobe, use training weights."

Ko felt embarrassed for not thinking about that herself. "I guess I can, I just need to find a store." She said bringing her hand up to her chin.

"Didn't you live here?" Sasuke questioned.

"The village has changed since I've been here...It changed a lot, even the people." She said getting to her feet.

"Where are you going?"

"Shopping, you can train on whatever, hey maybe try that lightning thing I was talking about earlier." She said before walking out of the room.

It felt nice to come and go as she pleased. She took the stairs exiting the hideout leading out to the forest, she took a deep breath of fresh air before heading to the village only a mile away. She couldn't help but to remember when she was a child, the village was beautiful and full of friendly people but as she walked, the village looked terrible and unkempt.

Finding a store wasn't as hard as she thought it would be. There were at least five of weapons shops spread out throughout the village. As she walked, the villagers who passed her looked scared or nervous even avoiding her as she walked passed them. She was confused but paid no mind to it. She doesn't know what happened to them while she was gone but she knew it was caused by her father.

When she got to the closest store, the cashier didn't bother looking up from his book. She walked around looking at the various weapons before finding the training weights. She grabbed four ten-pound weights for each limb and brought them over to the counter. She placed them on the surface making a loud noise startling the cashier. He looked up as if he were going to yell but once he saw her, his look changed from anger into fear.

"Take it, j-just go away." He stuttered as he pushed the weights back towards her.

"So he's also scared of me?"

"I have the money to pay," Ko replied softening her voice attempting to show the man she means no harm.

"It's on the house just go away." He pleaded handing her a bag.

Ko shrugged then took the bag placing the weights inside then left. The bag weighed her right side down making her wish he gave her two. She walked to a nearby bench then put on her weights and started to walk back to the hideout. While she was walking, she stopped when she heard someone shout her name. Ko turned around seeing a girl with brown hair running towards her.

"What do you want?" Ko questioned not in the mood to talk.

"It's me, Akira. Remember?" She said cheerfully which took Ko by surprise.

Ko looked at her again eyeing her Sound headband around her neck. Then looked into her green eyes which only showed happiness.

"How did she become a ninja?" Ko wondered. "How is she so happy?"

"I remember, how long have you been a genin?" Ko questioned guessing she wasn't experience yet.

"About a year,"

"Hm and what kinds of missions have you been on?"

"Uh well actually D ranked and a few C ranked. They train us in the academy so they can test our abilities and on graduation day Lord Orochimaru picks only a few students to become part of his team. The rest of us train on our own reading scrolls and learning from others. Sometimes if they don't have enough people for a mission we are picked to accompany them and if we are exceptional, we are picked to permanently join."

"Team? Is Father a sensei or something?"

"No, they're trained by Lord Orochimaru's subordinates and we get chosen to go on important missions. Shinobi like me mostly guard the village and help the villagers."

"It doesn't look like you're doing a good job." Ko commented motioning towards the run down buildings and some homeless people sitting on the streets. "Some buildings look fine but the rest look like they're about to collapse."

"They did that to themselves," Akira stated which took Ko by surprise, she never expected something so mean to come out of her mouth. "They didn't bother to even learn how to be a Shinobi. It was encouraged that all citizens enroll in the academy so they could protect themselves and the village. It's their fault they can't protect themselves."

"What the hell did they teach at the academy? This place is looking like the Land of Waves and they don't care about the civilians?" Ko thought as she stared at Akira's cheery expression, this didn't bother her. Now that she thought about it, the only well kept buildings were shinobi apparel stores.

"So you only help fellow shinobi and their families?"

"They're the only ones who can afford the help. We also help the ones who attempted to learn, they didn't have enough chakra but they are exceptional in taijutsu. Everyone is honored to help Lord Orochimaru with his goals."

"This is all about money? What did Father do to this village? It's like they're slowly driving out all the civilians making this a shinobi only village."

"Is that why everyone's scared of me? Because I'm a shinobi?"

"Of course not. Before you came back Lord Orochimaru announced your arrival; you're even in the bingo book!" She said with a big smile sounding like a proud parent.

"What? I am?" Ko questioned with a shocked expression.

"Yeah, we get every new copy to get some extra money just in case we're bored." She said taking out the book from her kunai pouch. "I saw your name in it page one hundred and fifty." She finished handing it to me.

I turned to the page seeing my ninja ID photo along with my description.

Name: Ko Himura

Age: 13

"I'm fourteen but oh well." She thought almost forgetting everyone in the village was a year younger. She needed to say she was their age to be in the same class as Sasuke.

Rank: Missing Ninja

Description: Has the ability of the Subete Miru able to see surroundings for miles and can predict moves. She is extremely dangerous and should be approached with caution, do not approach alone. She is affiliated with Orochimaru and the Sound Village. Should not be taken lightly. Wanted alive.

She flipped through the pages searching for Sasuke but didn't find him; only Itachi.

"Why wasn't he added in here to?!" Ko thought gripping the book tighter.

"I've got to go Akira," Ko said shoving the book towards her.

"But-"

Ko left Akira behind trudging towards the hideout and luckily wasn't followed. Finally, she reached the hideout but saw three figures on the ground up ahead. She got to them as fast as she could but it was pretty hard with the training weights weighing her down. Once she reached them, she activated her eyes seeing that the one in the middle was dead and the other two were only injured. Ko recognized them as followers from the Fuma clan, Jiguma and Kamikiri. When she reached them, knelt down shaking Kamikiri awake.

"What happened?" She questioned.

"L-Leaf ninja," he answered weakly looking like he was going to pass out again.

"Come, let's take you to Lord Orochimaru." She said helping him up along with his friend.

"Kagero," Kamikiri gasped. "Sh-she saved us...what about her?"

"She's dead, now let's informed Lord Orochimaru!" Ko disregarded his feelings, she couldn't focus on a dead body.

"No we must take her!" He pleaded making Ko sigh. Maybe Orochimaru had use for the dead body.

The two partners helped each other to Orochimaru's office while Ko carried Kagero's lifeless body. Once they arrived, Ko set her body in front of Orochimaru who sat in his chair then stood beside him while the men bowed.

"Please my Lord," Kamikiri started hoping his friend could be saved.

"Our fallen comrade doesn't have much time left only you with your mastery of medical jutsu can possibly save her." Jiguma pleaded.

"I want you to put your hands on your hearts and contemplate the many ways you failed me." Orochimaru hissed making the room seem colder, shivers ran through the two men.

"B-but my Lord, we risked our lives for your cause and every order you've given us we've obeyed. You promised to restore the Fuma clan!" Kamiriki shouted with fury in his eyes.

"You must acknowledge our service to you!"Jiguma chimed in.

"There is only one way left, for you two to redeem yourselves from your failures." Orochimaru said disregarding their outbursts.

The two looked at each other then nodded. Both pulled a kunai out from their sleeves. "Lord Orochimaru! Forgive our betrayal!"

They lunged towards Orochimaru only for Ko slash their throats before they could react. Their blood splattered on the floor and on her body but her face remained emotionless. The bodies fell to the ground landing on top of Kagero while Orochimaru laughed maniacally. Ko stared at the dead bodies unfazed before turning to Orochimaru.

"What shall we do with the Leaf ninja?" Ko questioned with an emotionless tone. Killing was starting to become a second nature; it was easier than before.

"Let them come, they'll be quite entertaining." Orochimaru chuckled.

Ko only nodded then proceeded to leave the room to get ready if she was needed. "I felt nothing that time." Ko thought as she looked down at her hands that were covered with blood. "No guilt nor regret, I could get use to this." A smirk formed onto Ko lips at the thought.

Ko stood in Orochimaru's office with her Subete Miru activated. She could only see the stairs unable to see above ground but it was enough. A frog appeared on the bottom stair perking Ko's interest. Soon three people appeared.

"Hm interesting," Ko started. "It seems Tsunade sent Jiraiya, Naruto, and Sakura." Ko wondered what they planned to accomplish

"Let's see what happens," Orochimaru chuckled with amusement in his eyes.

She could see them running down the hallways finally encountering three doorways causing them to split up. Jiraiya went to the right, Naruto and Sakura went straight, and the frog went left. The two genin were the first to fall into a trap of shuriken running for their lives then tripped on a rope making sharp bamboo fall from the ceiling.

"Damn," Ko said when she saw Naruto rescue Sakura from the pit fall. "I at least wanted her dead." She personally didn't have a problem with Sakura, but professionally, she had a lot of work to do to be a respected shinobi.

Once Naruto was in the pit, Ko turned her attention towards Jiraiya who was dealing with a strange woman. Ko had never met her in person but her Father told her stories making her never wanting to meet the woman. She had him wrapped in her hair looking as if she were going to eat him.

Sakura finally reached the room Kabuto was waiting for her. Ko was surprised Sakura made it that far but she was only alive because of Naruto not because of her own skills. She ran at Kabuto but it was only a clone. She ran out from behind him then lunged at him with a kunai but he easily deflected it. Her next attack was too slow so Kabuto was able to jump away. Once Orochimaru emerged, Sakura was paralyzed with fear.

"Heh what a weakling, freezing up." Ko spat.

Kabuto was about to finish her off until Naruto once again came to the rescue. Naruto used his clones annoying Kabuto then eventually ganged up on him once he was out of kunai. Kabuto managed to burn the clones but failed to sense Naruto behind him forming Rasengan until it was too late. His jutsu sent Kabuto flying until he hit the wall. Suddenly, Naruto couldn't move due to chakra thread wrapped around them.

Kabuto reached into his chest pulling out his heart crushing it along with Naruto's in the process. Ko could see both of their life forces depleting quickly. Sakura tried to cut the chakra strings along with ripping them apart but nothing worked. The numbers above Naruto's head counted down almost reaching zero. Five more numbers to go until Sesame appeared handing Sakura a seal then wrapped it around her kunai cutting the strings. Naruto fell to the ground as the numbers began to rise once more.

They walked towards Kabuto realizing it was a trick. It was only a Fuma clan Jonin posing as him. The numbers for her slowly counted down until reaching zero. They left the body and walked down another pathway which led them to Arashi. He began to transform growing the heads of his fallen Fuma comrades from his back. Ko was taken aback by his appearance. She looked in horror witnessing her Father's experiments. She's never seen him experiment on someone or even the end result of one. She remembered meeting Arashi when they first started the Sound village and this was just a monster.

She watched the brawl between them but Naruto was mostly the only one fighting while Sakura watched from the sidelines. Arashi formed a series of hand signs then shot his arms out trapping Naruto in a pyramid slowly crushing him. In order to save Naruto, Sasame ran towards Arashi stabbing one of the heads with a kunai starting to disintegrate. When Arashi tried to attack Sasame, Sakura finally stepped in directing his arm to the ground with her kunai.

"Wow, she actually did something." Ko noted.

Her head turned towards the door once she saw Orochimaru approaching.

"What is it my Lord?"

"We will be going escaping to the hideout in the grass village. Our location has been compromised and I must get Sasuke to safety. You distract them while we escape." He ordered her. Ko was about to reply but was interrupted by the ground shaking. "Go now!"

She nodded and ran towards the exit while making hand signs.

"Earth style: Earth Military Movement,"

Ko jumped towards the ceiling disappearing into the Earth and started swimming towards the Leaf ninja. They were just up ahead while Orochimaru and the others were escaping from the back exit a couple hundred feet away. Finally, she reach the shinobi who were resting once they were out of harm's way. Ko exited the ground in front of the four catching them off guard. Jiraiya instantly put the unconscious Sasame on the ground then got into a defensive position.

Naruto and Sakura could only stare at their former teammate not believing their own eyes. Her glowing eyes returned to normal knowing she didn't need them when fighting her former team. They took in her appearance and noticed the blood that was splattered on her clothes and face making them take a step back. Once they stared at the blood, the next thing they noticed was her Sound headband that was tied around her waist like a belt. Naruto felt angry once he saw her headband and took a few steps forward.

"No Naruto! She's not the person you knew in the Leaf!" Jiraiya warned his student.

"Ko! Why are you with Orochimaru?!" He shouted as he balled his fists with rage. "He's a monster only caring about himself! Once he's done with you, he'll throw you away like he does with all of his followers! He doesn't care about anyone else's life! Please, come back to the village with us." He pleaded but he was wasting his breath.

"Yeah! The Leaf is your home!" Sakura agreed.

Ko's cold expression turned into a smirk followed by laughter which sent shivers down the two genin's spines.

"You both are pretty clueless aren't you? If I go back, I'd have a date with Ibiki for the rest of my life. The Leaf isn't my home, the Sound is. Your village was too foolish to see they took and housed a spy for all these years." Ko said with a smile on her face.

Naruto and Sakura both had shocked faces after hearing her words. Jiraiya also was shocked but remained calm thinking about Tsunade's accusations and how he defended Ko.

"W-what?" Naruto gasped not wanting to believe her words.

"I was sent by Orochimaru to spy on the future generation and befriend Sasuke. Your Hokage made that part so easy by enrolling me in the Academy and making me Sasuke's neighbor. He played right into Orochimaru's hands." Ko chuckled once more. "Persuading Sasuke into following Orochimaru wasn't hard either. His Uchiha pride was so easy to knock down a few notches thanks to you Naruto."

"Hey what does Naruto have to do with Sasuke leaving?!" Sakura shouted feeling anger rise in her.

"Sasuke saw how Naruto progressed which made him resent Naruto. That's the main reason he left. He saw how much Naruto improved since the academy but Sasuke was stuck hardly improving watching Naruto get closer and closer to his level."

Before they could reply, Ko lunged towards Sakura kicking her in the stomach sending her flying. Just before she could hit the tree, Jiraiya appeared behind her catching the shocked girl. Naruto looked back at his teammate then back at Ko who stood a few feet away.

"Naruto, be careful! Her chakra is a lot stronger than it was back at the village. I believe her fight at the chuunin exams wasn't with everything she had." Jiraiya warned as he carried Sakura to where Sasame was lying.

Ko went to attack Naruto but he managed to dodge her attack landing on his feet. Naruto used his shadow clones to surround her then attacked but Ko took out a kunai slashing at each one. Ko looked at Naruto noticing the lines on his face getting darker and more rough. He ran at her again throwing consecutive punches but Ko could easily dodged them seeing as he was only using anger to fuel his punches and not his brain.

As she dodged, she looked over to where Jiraiya was but noticed Sakura was missing from her spot next to Sasame. Ko jumped over Naruto running towards Sasame and quickly grabbed her shirt pulling her away from the group jumping up into a tree.

"Now this traitor needs to pay for her betrayal." Ko started.

She saw Sasame slowly start to awaken then started to panic when she looked over seeing Ko holding her. Sasame thrashed around trying to get out of Ko's grip knowing it won't end well.

"When I first saw your pathetic self when we were younger I knew you couldn't be trusted. If it were up to me, you would've been dead a long time ago."

"Put her down!" Naruto ordered with fury in his eyes.

Ko took her kunai placing it on Sasame's neck making tears fall down Sasame's face. Before she knew it, pain erupted from Ko's back sending her flying past Naruto and Jiraiya crashing into many trees in the process before landing on the ground. Ko started to cough violently as she weakly got up. She reached into her pouch taking out a few pills and popped them into her mouth numbing the pain in her back. She managed to stand without a problem then looked back at the Leaf ninja.

Sakura was standing on the same branch she was holding Sasame who was still in tears. Ko cracked her neck then walked back towards them glaring at Sakura.

"I see someone's been training with Tsunade. I've had enough of you though Sakura. I saw everything you guys went through while in the hideout and I must say, you are still useless. Naruto still came to your rescue each time you were in trouble. You idiots also destroyed my home with all of my stuff." She said making hand signs. "Fire style: Fire flaming boundaries!"

Ko held her fingers up to her lips as fire spewed from her mouth aiming at her former teammates. Unfortunately, Jiraiya countered the jutsu with his own making both jutsu cancel each other out.

"I'll handle her, you two get Sasame and run as fast as you can. She's too advanced for you both." Jiraiya said as he looked away from them and turned his attention to Ko.

Ko watched as the genin ran from the scene which she didn't mind. She knew she bought Orochimaru enough time to put some distance between them and the now destroyed hideout. Jiraiya sprinted towards Ko engaging her in taijutsu knowing that was a weakness for her. Ko managed to dodge but soon Jiraiya grabbed both her arms. She struggled in his grip then kicked his foot making him loosen his grip on her. Ko jumped away making hand signs.

"Earth Release: Earth Military Movement,"

Ko started to sink into the ground staring at Jiraiya who started running towards her but she was already gone. Ko swam through the Earth with her eyes activated looking for the rest but decided to make a detour through the destroyed hideout to get the bag she packed. Luckily it wasn't completely damaged so she quickly grabbed it then started running in the direction Orochimaru went in.

They traveled faster than she thought since she didn't see them at all. Finally she could see them resting up ahead so she deactivated her eyes. Once she was there they looked up acknowledging her presence then went back to what they were doing. Sasuke was leaning up against a tree staring into space while Kabuto was sitting on the ground watching Orochimaru pacing to his left.

"How did they find the hideout?" Orochimaru questioned her as he stopped.

"Sasame betrayed us of course. I told you we should've killed her." Ko replied.

"I wasn't concerned at the time dear, I only wanted a clan to experiment on."

"Did he just call me dear?" Ko wondered feeling butterflies in her stomach.

"Heh it was pretty funny seeing those two again, they still couldn't connect us." She commented hoping to keep the conversation going. She hasn't had an actual conversation with him in years.

"Like I said before, they're idiots and held you and Sasuke back in that village. Now, let's get moving. We have a whole day's trip ahead." Orochimaru replied turning away from her.

"So much for that," she thought as her happiness faded.

Edited: 2/17/2021