You tugged at the bandage that covered your neck. That mission had been an utter disaster. Not only had you failed to 'rescue' your home village, but you'd been forced into a contract of sorts with Orochimaru. The new mark on your neck a perfect reminder of that. He had been the one that was behind the odd behaviour in the village. The behaviour that you were sure had been the real reason that the Hokage had sent you there for. You hadn't even gotten to see your parents. Instead you'd been reunited with a different family member. Orochimaru had somehow brought your brother back to life.

~~Flashback~~

"Usa?" You whole body trembled as your eyes took in the unbelievable sight of your twin brother standing before you. You shook your head, tears filling your eyes, "No...no...you're dead...I...I even destroyed your body. This isn't possible." You heard Koga snort, "So long as Lord Orochimaru has any remains, even just ashes, bringing the dead back is an easy feat." You stared at Usa's face. It looked just like him, but you could feel that something wasn't quite right. His eyes had that dull grey colour that had haunted you for over a year.

Orochimaru stepped forward, "I haven't fully restored his soul to his body yet. I'll do that once you decide to lend your new strength to me and complete some tasks." You knew that restoring a soul perfectly was impossible. Even if Orochimaru used a forbidden jutsu to bring Usa's soul back, Usa would only ever be a puppet. But you couldn't leave the thing with Usa's face behind. Even it only contained a piece of his soul, that piece would be trapped until you could free it. You looked at Orochimaru with pure hatred, "You're a monster." Orochimaru tilted his head in mock confusion, "I bring your dear brother back from the grave, and you call me a monster. Tsk tsk."

You glanced at your 'brother' again, and your head sank in defeat. You stared at the ground, trying to decide just what to do. You couldn't betray Konoha, but you also couldn't leave this faux brother of yours behind. You just knew that you'd have to kill your brother again, but for now you'd have to play along. At least for now, you needed to know what Orochimaru's plan was. To do that you'd need to make it believable that you'd actually help him, and you know just how to do that. "Ha you'll have to kill me cause I still won't help you." You looked up, allowing tears to flow down your face. Orochimaru smiled and raised his hand. Koga drew a kunai and lunged at Usa. Perfect. You knew Koga all too well and he'd done exactly what you'd expected, now all you had to do was play the part of the overly emotional and protective sister.

Your eyes widened and you lurched forward against your chains, "No!!" Koga's blade stopped, touching the skin of Usa's neck, but not cutting into it. You looked at Orochimaru, "Why?! Why bring him back to life if you're just gunna kill him at the first moment?!" Orochimaru raised his hands and shrugged, "He is only of use if he works as incentive for you. You are the only one I actually have use for, even if you don't willingly help me. If you refuse, I'll simply kill him. Then bring him back, and kill him again. Over and over, in increasingly cruel ways, until you finally break down and agree to join us." You curled slightly and let out a loud sob. Perhaps you were laying it on a little thick, but you needed this to work.

In a quiet, broken whisper you gave Orochimaru his answer. The one he clearly wanted to hear, "I'll do whatever you ask. Just don't hurt him. Please." You felt Orochimaru's hand grip your jaw again, making you look up into his face. He smiled, satisfied, "Very good, Uta."

~~~End Flashback~~~

The 'mission' that Orochimaru had given you was simple, but didn't give you much insight into his end goals. You were to keep Kakashi occupied, so that Orochimaru could get to his main target. You still had to give your report to the Hokage, which was going to be a fake report that Orochimaru's people had created for you. You would have to be careful with warning the Hokage, after all, Orochimaru said that he had many eyes and ears in the village that would be keeping an eye on you, so you'd have to be incredibly subtle about it. You might even have to put it off a little, until they stopped being as suspicious of you. You knew the attack couldn't be coming too soon, based on what you'd seen around your former home.

You walked through the gates, waving absently at the watchmen, making a beeline to speak to the Hokage and give your false report. You considered using some of your jutsu to make the trip faster, but every time you used any chakra the mark on your neck would act up. You'd have to figure out a way to control it before you could do anything about Orochimaru or his plans.

You knocked on the Hokage's door, tugging at your neck cloth to try to hide your bandages. After he called you in, you gave your false report, scanning every single person in the room, hoping to see who might be the eyes and ears that you'd been told about, but no one stood out. While you delivered the false report you knew that your life wouldn't be salvageable after this. Giving a false report was a serious crime. An unforgivable crime, especially when the false report hid a threat to the village, and no matter what the reason for your actions, you'd be labelled a criminal for this and likely be sentenced to death after everything was said and done. Even Sarutobi wouldn't be able to shield you from this, even though you knew you could give him the real report. Orochimaru knew a lot about you, but his information was outdated. He didn't know of your ability to communicate with Sarutobi with simply transferring thoughts. The only downside was I couldn't hear his thoughts and you could only send one, maybe two words at a time.

You had no intention of allowing harm to come to this village, but you needed to things your way.

After you finished speaking you made an unnoticeable hand sign and sent a thought to Sarutobi. *Don't....react.*

*False*

Sarutobi locked eyes with you then leaned back in his chair and lit his pipe. "So just a rogue group of shinobi creating problems. Was there any indication of them having any other numbers beyond the village?" You could only hope that Sarutobi had heard your inner thoughts and had understood your meaning. "No sir, I did not see any indication of any continuing threat." *Lie.* Sarutobi blinked once, then nodded, "I see. Well that's good. So no threat to Konoha then?" You swallowed, "Correct, no threats to Konoha." *Lies*

You raised your hand and rubbed your head, trying to hide the strain the showed on your face as you pushed to get more words across. *Huge....threat...imminent* Sarutobi narrowed his eyes, "You seem to have several injuries. You've given your report, so get checked out." You bowed and turned to leave, but Sarutobi called out to you again, "Oh and Kakashi is out doing a mission for me, so once you're healed please look after his team until he gets back." You tensed and nodded before leaving the room.

Kakashi being out of town would buy you some time to find a way to supress your mark.

Once you got outside you turned the opposite direction of the hospital and instead headed towards the towns archives. Time to get some reading done.