The Sound of Dreams

AN: Hah, I bet you thought I wouldn’t make the Saturday posting! I just got back home from work and made one last edit before I put this up for everyone’s perusal. It’s a little shorter than most, but has a decent stopping point, so I hope you all enjoy! Tuesday’s chapter will be up as usual!!

Grats to RoseHime and Kira who guessed correctly as to the identity of Togimeishu! It just goes to show you that I plan ahead occasionally, lol.

Also, for the 1k review mark, I want to say that you guys have been such an inspiration and have given me such wonderful support in this endeavor that I don’t know how to thank you! If there is any one-shots or anything else that you guys would like to see, or any questions that I can answer without spoiling the plot, I will see what I can do!!

Many hugs and thank you’s!!


Chapter 54


Orochimaru finally stood before the entrance to the recently occupied lair that acted as a back-up for one of his most trusted subordinates. It had caused him an extra day of travel once he had located the now empty base, but he was here at last.

He walked up to the door concealed in the side of the hill, knowing he had already been seen. As soon as it was obvious that he had located the base, three shinobi dropped from the surrounding trees directly behind him.

“Stop right where you are,” one of the figures, a female, ordered.

Orochimaru casually turned around, his left arm still wrapped around the body upon his shoulder. The face that had so often smiled now frowned upon the ones that had dared interfere with him. The narrow slit pupils within the yellow eyes expanded slightly as he met their gazes.

Three bodies tensed in fear, unable to move, unable to cry out, unable to look away from that dreadful stare. They were frozen by the terror that gripped their hearts, causing that organ to pound frantically in each of their chests.

Lips quirked into a sneering grin as the blonde turned back around and casually made the seals to open the door. Shifting Sasuke to a more comfortable position, Orochimaru entered the lair.

It didn’t take long for him to have a wary escort. No one knew for sure who he was, but no one wanted to stop and ask with those eyes looking out at them.

Kyoshiro met him in the hallway. His subordinate’s eyes narrowed briefly, assessingly, before assuming a look of deep reverence. The leader of the base knelt and bowed until his forehead touched the floor.

“Orochimaru-sama,” he breathed as if afraid of profaning a holy word by uttering it.

A twisted smile made its way across the whiskered face. “Rise, we have much to do.”

Kyoshiro regained his feet and made a motion to one of the men standing nearby. “You, take the boy to the infirmary.”

The man quickly stepped over to take Sasuke, being careful not to touch Orochimaru directly. Once relieved of his burden, Orochimaru calmly began to follow the man, hiding the pain of his own half-healed injuries.

“Did you bring my pet with you?” Orochimaru asked casually but softly.

Any doubts in Kyoshiro’s mind were laid to rest with that simple question. “Yes, Orochimaru-sama. I pulled in Togimeishu to look after it until its health bounces back from the trip.”

Orochimaru’s blonde eyebrows furrowed in a scowl. “You pulled him away from his research with the cursed seal?”

“I had to, Orochimaru-sama,” the man said quickly. “Our top doctor was killed in a raid while he was visiting another facility. Most of the installations in Rice Field Country have been forcibly shut down recently.”

“Shut down?” he demanded in a sibilant hiss.

“They have appointed a new leader of Sound and the daimyo backed them. They started attacking the labs immediately. However,” he said, his face taking on a smugness, “We retaliated and attacked their village, killing many of the Fuuma clan including Hanzaki who had been appointed Otokage.”

Orochimaru halted in his tracks and rounded on Kyoshiro. “You attacked the Fuuma clan?” he asked angrily. “What about Fuuma Ren? Is he still alive?” The way that the question was asked indicated that an unfavorable response might end Kyoshiro’s life as well.

“From what I gather he is still among the living,” Kyoshiro assured him, his avid curiosity easy to detect in his tone. “He is the one that pulled the clan together and fought back. He was wounded but not fatally so.”

Orochimaru turned and resumed walking the rest of the short distance remaining to the medical lab.

“I want you to send a squad to retrieve him. I want him here and alive within the week,” Orochimaru ordered darkly.

“As you command, Orochimaru-sama,” Kyoshiro intoned. He couldn’t help but wonder why his leader wanted the old man, but he wasn’t foolish enough to ask without leave to do so.

The Sannin stepped into the semi-sterile room, probably the cleanest one in the base. Sasuke was already stretched out on one of the four empty beds present with a familiar dark head bent over him. Green glowing hands knitted flesh together, killed off the beginnings of infection and repaired damaged organs.

“Keep him sedated,” Orochimaru ordered as he walked over and sat on one of the other hospital style beds. “I don’t want him waking up.”

The doctor lifted his head, intending on just a quick glance at the source of the new voice. However, his eyes locked on the form and recognition flashed in their depths.

Orochimaru gave a self-satisfied smile. Togimeishu would do well to identify him quickly and know with whom he was dealing. The man knew better than to cross the snake Sannin.

“You’re injured as well,” the doctor said after a moment of silence.

‘I’ll await your pleasure,’ had been what the Sannin was going to say. The words brought up an image in his mind of something other than the medic-nin. Determinedly pushing thoughts of the Kyuubi away, Orochimaru merely stated, “I can wait.”

Togimeishu nodded and finished worked on Sasuke. He calmly hooked up an IV and injected a liquid-filled syringe into mixture.

“He should stay asleep now with continued medication until you want him awake,” he finally announced.

The doctor moved over to Orochimaru and laid a hand glowing with the green of healing chakra over the area of his heart. He was quickly able to determine his vitals as well as diagnose what injuries he had taken to his new body.

“Clean out any infection,” Orochimaru instructed, “but don’t heal everything. I want this body occupied until Fuuma Ren is delivered to me.”

Togimeishu gave a careless shrug as if unconcerned with what the Sannin wanted and why, but inside he was fervently wishing he could reawaken the soul that was undoubtedly buried by the snake’s will.

He recognized the boy. He recognized both of them.

There was a letter in his room, delivered several weeks late from his son. Within that letter, Ryou explained how he and a traveling merchant family had been saved from bandits by a pair of shinobi who were more than likely on the run. His son speculated it was because the two shared a… special… relationship that was probably looked down upon by their village. He surmised that they had abandoned the only home that they had known and were running off to live a life together, free from the judgment of their family and friends.

Included with this romantic tale of determination and woe that his son had spun out in his letter had been a drawing of the two young boys that had saved his life. Although done in black ink, he could still see how the whiskered boy’s eyes had sparkled as he crouched down in front of two small children apparently talking rather animatedly to them. His large grin had been matched by the children before him as they enjoyed whatever he had been telling them. Off to one side had stood the other boy, dark hair swaying faintly in the breeze, a small smile curling the edge of his lips ever so slightly. But the look in his eyes had made Togimeishu believe that perhaps there had been some validity to Ryou’s ramblings about them. His son had captured the essence of a lover’s gaze. Care, adoration, possession, amusement and love had just been the surface of the emotions swirling in that dark look.

Togimeishu now wondered if perhaps they had been running from Orochimaru instead as he himself had once done. If so, they apparently hadn’t run far enough. None of them had. There wasn’t much he could do about the blonde. ‘Ryou had said his name was Naruto and that he had been an awesome ninja.’ But perhaps he could do something to help his lover. Not that the dark-haired boy would thank him for it later. It was hard to lose the one most precious to you.

He finished bandaging up the man before him and moved away. “If you don’t need anything else,” he began.

“There is one other thing,” the boy in front of him interrupted with a suddenly wicked smile. “I want you to collect some… genetic samples for me from him.” He pointed to the prone form in the other bed.

Togimeishu hesitated. “Genetic samples?”

“Yes, of the seminal variety,” he said with a smirk. “Then put it on ice.” The blonde slid gracefully off of the bed. “Now, if you will excuse me, I think I will go take a shower and perhaps visit my offspring.”

Togimeishu lifted an eyebrow.

Orochimaru laughed at his confusion. “You mean you haven’t figured it out yet, dear doctor? You must be getting senile in your old age. Thankfully, I’ll be spared that.”

The doctor quickly started adding up the figures in his mind. Everything that he knew about the girl, everything that he knew about the Sannin and came up with a startling conclusion.

“She’s your daughter?!” Being a father himself, it shocked him to the core that someone could experiment on their own child.

“I prefer to think of her as a work in progress. She is a diamond in the rough and I have to remove the imperfections that are her inferior genetics which were donated during her creation from the other party. While it’s true that a man cannot create a clone except through chakra, I am doing the next best thing. It had originally been my intention to replicate my own body to relocate to once my current one had expired.”

“But something went wrong,” the doctor said with certainty.

“Doesn’t it always,” Orochimaru said darkly. He then shrugged. “She’s a failed experiment, but one I tinker with now and then when I come across new techniques that might perfect her. And I couldn’t just kill her off,” he added. “What kind of father would I be then?” Giving his signature snarky grin, the Sannin left the room in a rather good mood.

Togimeishu’s eyes trailed to the prone figure in the bed and couldn’t help but wonder what the Sannin planned on doing with the requested materials.

***********************
Orochimaru stepped out of his private bath, being careful to keep his bandages dry. Kyoshiro had given up his room for his master’s comfort and had moved down to the next best accommodations. Everyone was shifted down a step until some poor schmuck ended up either sharing a room with five other guys or ended up sleeping in the broom closet. Shit flowed down hill as the saying went and it happened too often for the snake master to be amused by it any longer.

He quickly dried his hair and paused as he caught sight of himself in the full length mirror mounted on the front of the bathroom door, facing into the bedroom. He ran a hand of the visible seal, evidence that the Kyuubi was still working to heal the body as well as trying to recover from its own chakra loss. The sensitive skin prickled and tingled under his touch, making him idly wonder if Naruto ever caressed himself there when he masturbated. He had no doubts that the boy did. He could feel the teenage hormones swimming through his bloodstream even as he stood there looking at the tanned and toned naked body.

He watched with some amusement as the manhood started to thicken and slowly rise in response to his thoughts. The boy was average in length, but seemed to have a nice girth. It made for a good handful the Sannin admitted as his touch wandered from the seal to encircle the hardening length.

Watching through the boy’s eyes made it almost seem like he was watching Naruto instead of himself and the thought was that much more exciting. He had seen some of the boy’s dreams while he had been in control the first time, when their consciousnesses had been so much closer. He knew that the blonde had lusted after his friend. He wondered if they had ever consummated their mutual desires for he knew that Sasuke had tried very to repress those same feelings. It had been so obvious.

He had almost been tempted to keep the boy around just to torture him with his friend’s visage as he took his pleasure from that lithe pale body. But Sasuke was too dangerous to keep alive, too much of a potential threat. An unacknowledged shudder ran through the Sannin as the thought of touching another after his imprisonment, a shudder of both fear and desire.

The stroking hand was no longer enough.

He quickly crawled onto the bed, lowering himself down onto his shoulders with his ass in the air. He wet his fingers as his other hand went back to tugging on his engorged cock. Moving the saliva drenched digits to his hole, he slid the first in easily, his body accepting it almost eagerly.

“You’re such a fucking slut, Naruto-kun,” he moaned at the sensation.

The second entered with just a sweet twinge of pain before being accommodated. He pumped his fingers in and out as he pumped his cock in time. He felt himself hovering on the edge but unable to go over. He forced the third appendage in and felt himself quiver at the aching stretch of tight muscle. He was so damn close. He could almost feel the ghosting of fur against his legs, the prick of claws against his skin.

He pulled his fingers out halfway, took a breath and then forced them abruptly apart. The tearing of delicate flesh rocked his body with intoxicating agony. A catching sob turned into a cry as his climax exploded through him, his mind seeing red cat-slit eyes before him as he soiled the blankets beneath his body with his pleasure.

He allowed himself to collapse to the side, letting his body try to relax. However, the tightness in his chest wouldn’t leave. He realized with some shock that his breath was coming out in a choking gasp, bordering on convulsive whimpers. His hands clenched in the covers as he felt the burning in his eyes and the clogging in his sinuses. Rage quickly buried other emotions as his fury erupted into a physical display.

Dresser drawers were dumped, tables overturned, objects flung about and the bed tore apart as the Sannin lost what little grip he had upon himself.

“I’ll find a way to kill you, you fucking red-eyed demon!” he screamed at the top of his lungs.

The door flung open as a Sound-nin burst into the room, expecting a full out battle to be taking place. Blazing yellow-gold eyes riveted on him and he suddenly couldn’t move. He felt the warm wetness stream down his leg as that terrifying gaze held him immobile. His own eyes widened as the maniacal Sannin bore down on him. There was pain and then there was darkness.

Orochimaru came back to himself while staring at the blood upon his clawed hands. He glanced over at the mirror on the bathroom door and took in the blood covered figure. Red eyes stared back at him. Instead of throwing him into another rage however, he felt himself calming back down. He was in control now. The demon responded to his desires and wants, not the other way around. He was no longer the one trapped inside someone’s body.

He was in control.

He had a plan. A plan that would give him everything that he wanted. The demon’s powers at his beck and call, the Sharingan to copy all of the techniques that he desired and eventually he would have his immortality without having to transfer bodies so often. Perhaps someday he wouldn’t have to transfer bodies at all.

He was in control.

He realized his mistake with Sasuke. He had waited too long to take the boy away from Konoha. He only had to look at the loyalty of Kabuto and Kimimaro, both of whom he had obtained when they were mere children even in the view of the ninja world. He would rectify that mistake and make himself another loyal, powerful shinobi that would obey his every command. After all, there had to be some use for his failed experiment.

He was in control.

He looked over his splattered image in the mirror and didn’t stop the loud laughter that erupted from his between his lips.

Oh yes, he was definitely in control now.

TBC