Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and not me; otherwise I would own a cottage and not just visit one (and rarely at that).

A Note from Katana Haibane: Thanks go out to Son of Darkness and Chibi Maakuro for reviewing! If there is anyone out there who would be available to act as a beta reader for me that would be very much appreciated. This story will continue on, but will not remain canon to the second half of the Naruto Manga. Any suggestions / brilliant insights / words of wisdom you want to leave with me will be very much appreciated and hey, I might even use some of your ideas if they fit the story line. Also, I regret to inform any readers that I won’t be doing the techniques in Japanese as I don’t know how to speak/write it (yet) and don’t have access to a translator. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but I am creating quite a few unique techniques as you may have noticed last chapter. I will try to keep all bloodline limits in Japanese though.

On with the story!

Chapter 2: Forging the Weapon

“I refuse,” Sasuke said, turning his back on the girl in the cell, “I came here to get stronger Orochimaru, not to baby-sit a brat.”

Orochimaru turned and slid up beside Sasuke draping one arm over his shoulder and in a sickeningly sweet voice said, “But Sasuke-kun, if you train Mikomi-chan here to be the weapon that I want her to be, I will give you a Kusanagi blade much like my own.”

This halted Sasuke in his tracks. He remembered Orochimaru’s Kusanagi alright. Among all the weapons in the world it was said to be the strongest of blades, not to mention he had seen how destructive it could be in Orochimaru’s hands when he had eradicated an entire team of Konoha Anbu without even breaking a sweat. Armour didn’t slow it down, kunai couldn’t stop it, shields were cut in half like butter and even most chakra enhanced weapons could be overpowered by the blade. It was another path to power; power he would have even if it meant sacrificing some precious time to play trainer for Orochimaru.

“Fine,” Sasuke replied at last.

A grin split Orochimaru’s face, “Kukuku, I knew you would see things my way Sasuke-kun. Just remember that for as long as Mikomi-chan here remains as useless as she is now, no Kusanagi for you.”

Sasuke scowled and shrugged Orochimaru’s arm off of him. As he was turning back to the cell he felt a punch being thrown at his head. Instinctively he caught the fist that Mikomi had thrown at him, rather surprised at how much force was coming from such a skinny arm. As she threw back her right hand for a follow up Sasuke booted her in the stomach, slamming her into the back wall of the cell.

“As if I’ll let another one of your pawns ‘train’ me you bastard,” Mikomi gasped out as she climbed back to her feet, “Especially such a little boy.” She glared at the three outside her cell.

“Hnn. So you are a few inches taller than me, big deal,” Sasuke said as he stepped into her cell, “There hasn’t been a soul in this place to give me a challenge in combat besides Orochimaru-san and Kabuto since I got here. I’m not some pathetic pedophile like that Sadisuto you mentioned was, I’m a ninja.”

Mikomi’s eyes went wide as he felt the surge of chakra that started pouring from the kid clothed in black in front of her. Sadisuto may have been a bastard, but he had taught her the basics before she became his personal punching bag and he felt nothing like that kid, Sasuke. Then his Sharingan activated and she shivered. His eyes felt as if they were boring right through her.

Orochimaru chuckled once again as he stared down Mikomi, “Yes, perhaps he was not the best choice to train someone as special as you. He may have been my best taijutsu trainer, but his ‘tastes’ were rather poor. That’s why he’s dead by your hands and Sasuke-kun is going to take over.” He glanced over to see that Sasuke had activated his Sharingan, “One more thing Sasuke-kun. Watch my hands as I’ll teach you the hand seals that will activate her restraint on her neck. Punishment for attacking you of course.”

Mikomi’s eyes widened at the thought of activating the seal on her neck. She braced herself for the pain to come as Sasuke memorized the seals. With a gasp Mikomi went ridged and fell forward to the ground as Orochimaru called out in and almost sing-song voice, “Raiton: Sealing Restraint.”

Sasuke watched the effects with a bored look on his face while Orochimaru described the effects of the seal, “It’s quite an effective seal. No damage whatsoever to the body as long as you don’t activate it for more than 10 minutes at any one time for a normal person. Pain, pure and simple is the result. The seal uses the sealed’s own chakra to power the electrical shock as well, only affecting the sealed person as well. Yominokuni Mikomi-chan here is anything but normal you see, so she can last for 17 minutes under seals effects before she begins to develop any damage to her at all. Also it would be good to remind you that you must be within 50 feet of the seal to activate it.”

Mikomi finally went slack as Orochimaru ceased his activation of the seal. Her nerves felt numb as she slowly stood up once again. Glaring at Orochimaru, she turned and bowed to Sasuke as Sadisuto had commanded she do whenever he came to get her for training.

“Don’t bow to me,” Sasuke snapped, “If you are to become a weapon then don’t act the part of a sniveling servant.”

Mikomi jerked upwards in mild shock at Sasuke’s reaction to her bow, puzzlement etched across her face. She honestly didn’t believe that the snake bastard had ever wanted her as a weapon. She thought that she was just a play thing for whoever she was given to as Sadisuto certainly told her so on a regular basis. Orochimaru actually wanted her to fight for him? No way in hell!

“I’ll never fight for you, you snake f–”

“Shut up Mikomi,” Kabuto said cutting her off, “You are sealed by Orochimaru-san, so you are going to do what we say, when we damn well say it. Unless you want to feel the pain of the seal again.”

Sasuke gave Mikomi as once over again then made his first decision as her trainer, “Get her a proper room set up Kabuto. Across from mine so I can control her movement. She’ll be useless if we lock her away and starve her. I hate useless things.”

Yominokuni Mikomi’s Chamber

Mikomi lay on her bed with a big goofy grin on her face. She had a bed! A real bed! A table, a chair, a bookshelf and even a dresser! This had to be the best day she had ever had since being stuck into that hellhole of a cell!

To say that Mikomi had been shocked and disbelieving at Sasuke’s words was an understatement of epic proportions. Not once had Sadisuto or anybody else in the Sound done anything except beat the crap out of her or throw her into her cell and lock her in darkness. She had actually been tempted to attack the trio again starting with that bastard Sasuke for tormenting her like that. The only thing that had stopped her was when Orochimaru agreed to give her a new room at Sasuke’s request. The boss man actually let her have something.

She stretched her arms and legs out as far as they would go as she lay down on the bed stretched out to her impressive height of 5’5” savouring the feeling of the blanket against her skin.

“Get up, you’re coming with me,” Sasuke’s voice came from the foot of her bed. Startled, Mikomi jerked upwards and pulled herself into the corner where the head of the bed was. On Sasuke’s face was a look of annoyance. “Great,” he muttered, “Can’t even detect when I’m coming into the room.”

Mikomi relaxed slightly when Sasuke made no move to come any closer. “Whadaya want?”

“Get up,” Sasuke turned and started heading out the door of Mikomi’s room, “I’m starting your training immediately.”

Despite the kindness that Sasuke had shown her by getting her this room, memories of Sadisuto’s ‘training’ flooded into Mikomi’s mind. Shuddering she yelled, “No way! No way in hell! Thanks for getting me this room and all, but I’m not gonna be another person’s stress relief.”

“Orochimaru needs a weapon, not a useless lump of flesh. Move it, your progress affects me as well. You won’t stand in my way. I will have the power of a Kusanagi.”

“Like I’d ever believe one of you Sound bastards!” Mikomi screamed.

Sasuke seemed to flicker in front of her eyes he moved so fast. Quite suddenly Mikomi felt a vice like grip begin to crush her left arm as Sasuke began to drag her from the room. Gritting her teeth in anger Mikomi tried to wrench her arm out of Sasuke’s grip. His hand didn’t even budge. She grabbed the hand locked onto her arm and tried to pry his fingers off of her with as much success as the last time.

As Sasuke started to drag her past the Mess Hall, Mikomi cocked her fist back and tried to punch him in the face. With the same shocking speed Mikomi felt her arm twist behind her back and her hand twisted to put as much pressure on her shoulder as possible, forcing her to walk forwards. Mikomi moaned at the pain coursing up and down her nearly dislocated shoulder. Without pause Sasuke proceeded to force march Mikomi through the halls of Orochimaru’s keep and out into the sunlight of the Village Hidden in Sound.

Blinking in the sudden light, Mikomi tried to squint to see where she was going. This had been the first time in a little over 2 years that she had been allowed outside of the Sound compound. After all, she had almost successfully escaped from capture that time.

Sound Training Grounds # 17

Mikomi suddenly found herself flying through the air towards a couple of training posts. She quickly threw her arms over her head as she crashed into the post and collapsed in a heap on the ground. Leaping to her feet she turned around and yelled, “What the hell’d you do that for you bastard!”

Sasuke simply stood there glaring at Mikomi and waiting for her temper to cool. When a look of shock passed over Mikomi’s face, Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the strange response.

“Why didn’t you use my sealing collar to force me into submission to get me out here Sasuke-san?” Mikomi quietly asked. She felt a little strange; guilty almost that she had struggled so much when her new ‘trainer’ hadn’t tortured her at all for her outburst and refusal. Sadisuto had never missed an opportunity to send that awful pain ripping through her body, sometimes beating her while the collar froze her in place.

“You are to be a weapon. You don’t forge a blade by crushing the metal to dust. You have to shape and temper the blade to perfection, striking it only when and where it is needed.”

Mikomi’s jaw dropped. She actually was something of worth to this kid in front of her? A weapon of worth? Since when did her life actually mean a thing to anyone? She felt a tug from inside her body as warmth began to spread through her chest and stomach almost overwhelming her. For the first time in a little over 3 years Mikomi felt gratitude join the swirling thoughts and feelings that had invaded her body and mind. Mikomi felt her knees give way and she dropped to the ground hugging her body. Tears started to form in Mikomi’s eyes but she quickly forced them back. With a shudder Mikomi stood to her feet and felt the tightness her body had held for the last 2 and a half years start to fade away.

“Thank you Sasuke-sensei,” Mikomi said, “what should I do to begin training?”

“First don’t bother calling me ‘sensei.’ I have no need for that title.” Sasuke looked on as Mikomi seemed to cycle through a breakdown to recovery in no time at all. He had to admit that her height at such a young age was rather surprising. If she was properly taught taijutsu she may be able to use that reach to her advantage in a few years if she keeps up this growth. “What did Sadisuto train you in?”

Mikomi’s mood nose-dived with the reminder of her former trainer, “That asshole taught me pretty much jack shit for having 3 years to train me. All he taught me was the basics of chakra manipulation which I had already partially covered before. He gave up teaching me jutsu after he realized what horrid chakra control I have. He also taught the basics of a hard fist style to me. Defense and evasion I know since he used me for target practice on more than a few occasions and used me as a punching bag even more often. That and I know a basic healing jutsu…” Mikomi swallowed hard when she mentioned her healing technique. She had used it often to supplement her own natural regeneration. Mikomi kept using it even when she didn’t need it in remembrance of her family and previous life. It kept her going even when she had no other reason to live.

Sasuke’s eyebrow rose, “Hnn. Sadisuto was useless. What about bloodline limits? You must have something special if Orochimaru wants you as a weapon.”

Mikomi sighed, “I don’t know.” She shook her head, “That creep Kabuto kept going on and on about how I naturally healed at almost three quarters the speed of some fox container guy. That and apparently my chakra coil system is twice the thickness of a normal person.”

Sasuke’s attention zeroed in when Mikomi mentioned her regeneration rate compared to that of his best friend. Sasuke smirked, “That’s all I needed to know. First we spar. I want you coming at me with intent to kill. Don’t hold back. Let me see how strong you really are.”

Mikomi took a deep breath and mumbled under her breath, “Here comes the pain, get ready to take it.” Setting herself, she waited for Sasuke to attack her.

Sasuke activated his Sharingan and waited for Mikomi to attack. And waited…and waited…and waited. “I said attack dobe.”

“Wa...what?! You actually want me to attack?” Mikomi exclaimed.

“I just said that.”

Mikomi winced, “Sorry, sorry, it’s just that Sadisuto forbid me from ever making the first move when we did our little ‘sparring’ sessions. Always wanted to make sure he could knock me around.”

Sasuke simply crossed his arms across his chest, “I’m not that imbecile. Forget all of his rules right now. I’m now your master and what I say goes. So when I say attack me, attack me with everything you’ve got.”

Mikomi grinned again and dashed forward immediately and snapped a kick with her right foot at Sasuke’s head.

‘She has excellent speed,’ Sasuke thought as he leaned back to dodge the kick without moving from his spot, ‘and despite what she claimed about have horrible chakra control she flawlessly used it to enhance her legs for power and speed to maximize the assault.’

Mikomi felt herself whiff on the roundhouse and continued the spin into a left-footed back kick all in one motion with Sasuke not even moving from his starting position to dodge. Sasuke spun as Mikomi passed over his head and hammered a fist into the small of her back sending her to the other end of the training pitch. Mikomi caught her fall with one hand and flipped herself up and rebounded off a tree and came around again. This time Mikomi came in with her fists. Sasuke allowed himself to be back across the pitch from the flurry of punches Mikomi threw at him as she brought her feet into play occasionally. He easily turned them all aside with a few sweeps of his arms to gage her hit strength. ‘She may have a very straightforward fighting style but the way she varies the angle and speed of every attack would make it incredibly hard to predict and counter without my Sharingan. She still has far too many holes in her fighting style that mar her unpredictability.’ They danced back and fourth in a flurry of limbs, Sasuke testing out her defenses. ‘Excellent defense, a testament to the amount of time she was on the receiving end of Sadisuto perhaps.’

This time Sasuke held nothing back in his counterattack. Sliding under her right arm he connected with her armpit, spinning her. Using Mikomi’s dislocated arm to his advantage he spun and swept her feet out from underneath. Again Mikomi hand sprung up and away lashing out with her feet to stop his follow up attack. With her right arm.

‘Hmm, I was sure that would have put her arm out of commission for a while. Damn it! It’s been a while since I’ve made such a careless error.’

Mikomi was slightly frustrated. She couldn’t touch the slippery guy. And he punched even harder than Sadisuto and pinpointed her weak spots. Then he flickered with that incredible speed again. Mikomi felt a foot snap beneath her jaw and send her flying into the air. When she sensed Sasuke behind underneath her in mid air, she realized she had never encountered this technique from Sadisuto before – and he was supposed to be a taijutsu expert. Mikomi was able to block Sasuke’s first kick to the mid section, but then came his first. When it smashed into Mikomi’s face her guard dropped in shock from the blow. As they neared the ground Mikomi saw Sasuke continue his spin and then he hammered his heel into her stomach in a massive spinning kick and yelled out, “Lion Rendan!”

Mikomi’s breath whooshed out of her body with that last kick. Gritting her teeth Mikomi locked her hands around Sasuke’s ankle before he could flip away. She wanted to get stronger, no she had to get stronger. She would prove that she was worthy to be taught by this guy. He had strength, speed, control and most of all knowledge. With a roar she leapt up dragging a rather surprised Sasuke with her. He hadn’t expected so quick a recovery and the Sharingan had even reacted a little late. Mikomi began to spin Sasuke as if she was doing a hammer throw and hurled him straight at the training posts. Sasuke spun around in mid air and rebounded himself off of the posts right back at the overextended Mikomi. ‘I’ve never seen anyone take the hits from my Lion Rendan so well and recover so quickly,’ Sasuke thought, ‘The Sharingan hasn’t picked it up yet so she must be using some very subtle chakra control. I’d better pay more attention to how she does it.’

Sasuke connected with a chakra infused fist into Mikomi’s chin all the while watching closely with his Sharingan whirling. Sasuke saw it this time. Mikomi had developed a very advanced form of chakra defense that would have been incredibly draining on any normal person. Mikomi concentrated chakra to the parts of her body that were struck, reinforcing her flesh to being almost as tough as rock.

Mikomi was knocked off of her feet, spinning with the force of the punch. She hit the ground a little dazed and was about to jump back up to her feet when she felt a kunai against her throat. She gave a little gulp when the blade touched. ‘Oh hell, don’t tell me he’s pissed ’cause I overdid it.’

“That’s enough Mikomi,” Sasuke said with a smirk deactivating his Sharingan, “I’ve seen enough.”

Mikomi breathed a sigh of relief as Sasuke withdrew the kunai and tucked it back into his leg pouch. As she stood up the left sleeve of her shirt fell away. Mikomi groaned and looked at her ruined shirt. She knew was going to happen eventually, but it was a sign that the rest of her clothing was starting to wear out.

Sasuke tucked the state of Mikomi’s clothes into the back of his mind. “You said that you have horrible chakra control before right? I want to test out your control. Try doing this technique after I show you how it’s done.”

Mikomi watched as Sasuke flashed through several hand seals then announced his technique as he took a massive breath in, “Katon: Grand Fireball Jutsu.” Mikomi watched in awe as Sasuke blew and enormous fireball straight up into the air from the center of the clearing almost hitting the branches of the trees with the sheer size of the attack.

“That’s the technique I want you to learn. First the hand seals.”

For the next few minutes Sasuke went over the hand seals and what Mikomi needed to do to properly gather the chakra, convert it to fire and then exhale it from her mouth.

“Alright, let’s do this.” Mikomi did the hand seals correctly and took a huge breath.

Sasuke watched Mikomi with his Sharingan activated once again. ‘Excellent,’ he thought, ‘she did the seals properly and now is gathering the chakra perfectly. She has excellent con–’ Then Mikomi exhaled and tried to do the Grand Fireball Jutsu.

As Mikomi started to exhale she tried to form and fire off the chakra as fire. That’s when things when wrong. Her throat started heating up and felt funny as she blew out a stream of sparks that shot up into the air. Mikomi sweat-dropped.

“I’ve never seen the Grand Fireball Jutsu done like that before,” said Sasuke in a slightly strained voice, “Alright.” Sasuke took a deep breath. That had been the first time in a long time that he had felt like laughing in the slightest. “I’ll give you a synopsis of your abilities: first, you have above average taijutsu for being relatively untaught. Your defenses are very good, almost to the point I have to go all out to get around them. Your speed and power are also both above average. However, it is your chakra control that is the mystery to me. You have developed a defense system using chakra where you reinforce your body and become as hard as stone whenever you take a hit.”

“I WHAT?!?!” Mikomi shouted, her mouth falling open yet again. “Uh, I didn’t know I was doing that.”

“I suspected as much. Well you also happen to use your chakra to drastically increase your speed and punching power at all times, which I assume you didn’t realize either.” Mikomi shook her head.

“Your constant use of chakra to reinforce yourself for offence and defense is a testament to the sheer size of your chakra capacity. The size of your coils seems to help with the speed your access your chakra. As far as I can tell, your regenerative ability would be a naturally developed healing chakra your body produces with excess chakra which circulates your chakra pathways and localizes at injured points on your body. As for your control in general: you have absolutely perfect control of the chakra inside your body, hence your chakra defense. It’s when you try and release it outside of your body that your control slips to almost nil. I would assume it’s because Sadisuto didn’t teach you anything in that regard.”

Mikomi hung her head, “I told you that I had no chakra control. Still I’m glad I have some chakra control.”

“Hnn,” was all Sasuke said in response. He motioned for Mikomi to follow him as he went to the edge of the clearing and stopped in front of a few trees that were a little more than 40 meters (130 feet) tall. “You need control Mikomi. I want you to climb these trees without using your hands. You have to attach yourself to the tree using chakra only. Make sure that you evenly distribute your chakra over your foot. Too much you push yourself away from the tree. Too little you lose your grip and fall.” Sasuke demonstrated how to walk up the tree and proceeded to walk up to a little over half way before leaping to the ground. He gave Mikomi a kunai, “Mark your progress with this. I’ll leave you to it.”

Mikomi looked at the kunai in her hands. Then at the tree. “How the heck am I gonna do this Sasuke-san? I don’t have any control at all.” Her shoulders slumped as she just looked up the tree.

“I noticed,” Sasuke said dryly. “Right now you don’t have footwear so it will be a little easier without them for now. I’ll make you a deal: make it at least 4 meters up the tree in 24 hours then I’ll get you some footwear.”

Mikomi slowly turned around and look straight at Sasuke almost tearing up again, “Are…are you serious?”

“Yes,” Sasuke replied, “I’ll make this deal two part since footwear will make it harder. If you can go up and down the entire tree by the end of 2 weeks I’ll get you a new set of clothes.”

Mikomi’s face lit up, “Thank-you Sasuke-san. Thanks a lot.”

“Hnn. As I said, I hate useless things. Encouragement like this should speed things up.” Sasuke turned around and left the clearing, heading back inside the base to seek out Orochimaru for further training. He was confident that she wouldn’t leave.

Mikomi was astonished by the dark boy once again. He had actually been nice to her. Well at least indifferent, which still was a hell of a lot better than Sadisuto had treated her. The thought of running away had slipped out of her mind at Sasuke’s deal with her. ‘I finally might be able to get some sandals at least!’ Mikomi thought, ‘And clothes, some decent clothes! Something purple or black would be nice.’ Mikomi brought herself up short. ‘I’ve got work to do, so I’d better get to it.’

Mikomi stood at the foot of the tree and concentrated her chakra to the bottom of her feet. Feeling a little more confident in her ability to gather chakra to her feet, she backed up a bit and ran at the tree. She reached the tree and took a step up and went to run up…and her foot just slipped off the tree and she cracked her head on the ground. “YEEEEOOOWW!”

Sound Training Grounds # 17 – Several Hours Later

Mikomi was breathing hard as she looked at the tree. There were at least a hundred slash marks and more than a few craters on the tree and she had hardly made it more than 2 meters off the ground. She slumped to the ground and lay down panting. “Uhhhhhhhnnnnn,” Mikomi groaned, “This is not working! How, how, how in hell do I do this?”

“Show me what you’re doing Mikomi.”

Once again Mikomi shot up and put her back to the tree in surprise from Sasuke sneaking up on her, “Jeez, don’t do that!”

“Hnn. Show me what you’re doing.”

Sasuke watched with his Sharingan activated yet again as Mikomi began to concentrate chakra in her feet. With that she ran at the tree and sprinted up to a point roughly 3 cm above here last gash in the tree before she fell again, landing on her feet. Mikomi let out a frustrated yell.

“First mistake is your letting your emotions get the best of you. Second: why haven’t you bothered testing how much chakra you need to actually stick to the tree?”

Mikomi sweat-dropped at that comment, “Aww dammit.” Mikomi took Sasuke’s advice and tested getting her feet to stick to the tree one at a time. This time Mikomi was able to consciously register exactly how much chakra she needed to stick to the tree. “Thanks Sasuke-san…” Mikomi said to an empty clearing. Shrugging, Mikomi backed up again to try her luck with climbing the tree. Concentrating the same amount of chakra to her feet as a moment ago she ran at the tree. She sprinted as fast as she could up the tree and again felt the slipping of her concentration and slashed the tree once again. 10 cm higher! Mikomi felt a glow coming over her. She could do this. She would do this.

Mikomi kept on running up the tree even when hunger pangs began to set in – she was used to ignoring them from Sadisuto. She was making slow progress again after that large jump but it was steady. She sprinted straight at the tree time and time again even as the sky darkened into night.

“You need to eat if you don’t want to burn out,” came Sasuke’s voice from behind Mikomi.

Mikomi didn’t jump for the first time when Sasuke snuck up on her, but her shoulders still flinched. “Alright.”

//////////////////////////

Mikomi began to follow Sasuke back into Orochimaru’s complex and began to head back to her sleeping quarters when Sasuke stopped her.

“You are a weapon, not a slave or servant. Come with me.”

Hesitantly, Mikomi followed Sasuke down the corridor to the mess hall. She had never been allowed to eat anywhere but her cell before. More often than not she only was given rice balls and water to eat.

Mikomi started drooling as Sasuke opened the door and the smells from the mess hall wafted out. The room just smelt so good! And she was allowed to eat here!

“You have permission to eat here whenever you are hungry from now on,” Sasuke said as he picked up a tray and began to move along the open counter picking up food every now and then as he approached the servers on the line.

Mikomi scooped up a tray and happily took a little bit of everything – stopping to mention to the final server how great it would be if they made dango.

Sound Training Grounds # 17

The sun had just been creeping over the horizon to reveal the figure Mikomi still doggedly trying to climb the tree. She only had a few hours to go before the bet was up and she was having trouble making up the last 50 cm. Calming down, Mikomi began to study what she had been doing to climb the tree so far. ‘Alright, so I tested how much chakra I needed to stick to the tree. That and I’ve been running at it like a maniac. Hmm, maybe I should try to take it slower and pay more attention to my chakra concentration.’

Mikomi walked up to the tree and stuck one foot to it. Leaning back she put her other foot on the tree. Mikomi began to slowly walk up the tree feeling the chakra drain from her she did her level best to keep her chakra perfectly steady. One step at a time she walked up the tree. Opening her eyes she saw the end of the cut marks she had made on the tree. A few steps later Mikomi felt her left foot begin to slide so she slashed the tree once again and flipped down to the ground. Mikomi looked up and was sure she was just barely below the 4 meter goal that Sasuke had given her. Mikomi lay down on the ground with sigh. Relaxing to ease the tension out of her muscles, Mikomi drifted off to sleep.

When Sasuke came to the training ground that he had left Mikomi at the previous night he found her lying on the ground asleep. Walking up to her sleeping form Sasuke prodded Mikomi with his foot. With a jolt Mikomi leapt up off the ground and spun, blinking, to see Sasuke in front of her. Sasuke glanced up at the tree to see her progress. He was surprised to see on slash so much higher than the rest. “Times almost up on our deal Mikomi. You have one more chance left.”

Mikomi felt her stomach clench when it dawned on her what had happened. She had fallen asleep! Sweating father profusely she nervously eyed the tree. Mikomi knew she had to calm herself down to do this. Breathing deeply Mikomi slowly clamed herself down. She walked up to the tree and decided to try a repeat performance of her walk that morning.

One foot in front of the other was the motto that was running through Mikomi’s head as she went up the tree. ‘Keep it steady. Left foot, then right foot and keep my chakra steady.’

Sasuke watched as Mikomi went up the tree. Slowly, ever so slowly Mikomi made her way up the tree. Mikomi had just reached her previous mark when she felt her left foot slip again. Gritting her teeth she refocused her chakra into her foot as she hung from the tree with one foot. Mikomi took one more step…and went over her last mark! Slashing the tree she flipped off again. She looked back to Sasuke for his verdict.

“Good. You made it past the 4 meter mark. Your last effort wasn’t necessary as you had cleared it already, but I wanted to ensure that you could actually do it. Well get you some footwear in the Sound Village proper later today after you’ve eaten and rested. Let’s go.”

Mikomi couldn’t believe her ears. Someone had actually complimented her. Sasuke, her trainer, had complemented her. Her face glowing with happiness, Mikomi followed Sasuke back to the mess hall.

Village Hidden in Sound – 2 Weeks Later

“That was quite annoying Mikomi,” Sasuke said as they entered a clothing retailer named Kishi’s Nin Apparel in the village that had several lines of ninja clothes and gear, “you met the conditions of our deal but passed out for 2 days from chakra exhaustion.”

Following Sasuke in through the door Mikomi’s face was bright pink from the combination of embarrassment and the scrubbing she had given herself in the baths back at Orochimaru’s complex. Despite actually succeeding at running up, then down the 40 meter tall tree by the end of the week, Mikomi had pushed herself beyond anything Sasuke had expected from her and had passed out. This had forced Sasuke to have to carry Mikomi back to her chambers to rest – and discover how filthy, and rather pungent smelling, Mikomi really was. Not being allowed to bathe very often for 3 years tended to cake a lot of grime to a person’s body. So Sasuke gave her access to the baths and ordered her to take one and Mikomi was only too happy to comply. For Mikomi the baths had been a glorious 2 hour long experience which she had savoured every second of.

“Sorry Sasuke-san,” was all Mikomi could say. Mikomi was having trouble containing her excitement. She was still beaming that Sasuke was actually keeping his end of the bet for the completion of his training exercise. The reinforced soft-soled boots Sasuke had allowed gotten for Mikomi still felt so amazing on her feet, both light and durable. And now she was getting new set of clothes.

“Welcome to Kishi’s Nin Apparel and Supplies,” came a female’s voice from the back of the store, “I’ll be with you in a moment.”

“As with the boots you can choose whatever you want,” Sasuke said, “and be sure that its gonna be durable. I’m only getting you 2 sets.”

“You only said you’d get me 1 new set of clothes for passing your training exercise,” Mikomi exclaimed, “Not that I’m complaining.”

“Do you really think those rags you’ve got on now are going to last more than a few days more? The front of your shirt nearly split in half when you went to clean it after your bath. Besides, Orochimaru wants you as a weapon. So you’re gonna need the proper gear. Right now you are just a useless, untrained, lump of flesh. Training you is a path to power for myself so you’d better be worth my time.”

Mikomi’s heart sank at Sasuke’s words. ‘What the hell’s the point of trying,’ Mikomi thought, ‘I’m still useless and weak. Worthless. That’s worse than being dead and only slightly better than Sadisuto’s use for me. At least Sasuke is treating me alright and he might even take the time to make me stronger.’ With a sigh Mikomi walked over to the clothing rack near the back wall that had tops for kunoichi.

“Need a hand getting something a little better than those rags you got on honey?” The woman that had welcomed them into the store had come up behind Mikomi and was sizing her up.

Mikomi glanced over her shoulder at the woman behind her and inched away from her, “No.”

“Well it’s pretty obvious by your companion that you’re a new recruit for the Sound Nin, so at least let me give ya some pointers on what to pick out. I do own this store ya know. Kishi’s the name.”

“I guess so,” Mikomi said and turned back to the clothing racks, “I’d like something that isn’t as bulky as what I’ve got now though.

“Hmm.” Kishi began to quickly flip through the clothing racks. “Something tighter, perhaps a skintight top? Durability is needed for any ninja clothing. Some darker colours as well, harder to pick out in the dark…”

“Purple and black would be nice,” Mikomi commented as she pulled out a cotton vest that turned out to be a few sizes to small.

“Ah ha!” came the triumphant cry from Kishi as she pulled out a t-shirt and some long legged shorts. “These should do the trick. They look the right size, and the top is an almost black purple. It’s actually quite similar to your hair. And the black shorts are a good match. Both are reinforced with a tough and flexible carbon polymer of my own invention. It’s actually naturally resistant to Raiton Jutsu not to mention that kunai will have a harder time cutting through it. You’ll never find any quite like it anywhere else in the element nations.”

Mikomi had to admit that the clothes that Kishi had picked out did look like what she had in mind. The fact that it could act like body armour was also rather appealing. “I really like it!” Mikomi paused. “It’s not too expensive is it Kishi-san?”

Kishi gave a bit of a nervous laugh when she saw Sasuke glaring at her from across the store, “Well, it is probably the most expensive stuff clothing wise I sell her, but since you’re a first time, plus Sasuke-sama is the one who brought you here I’ll give you a 2 for 1 special. Try ‘em on.”

Mikomi blushed and spoke up, “Umm, I kinda need some, uhh, underwear as well.”

“No prob honey, slip into the change room and I’ll pass some over to ya so ya can try ‘em on with the set I picked out for ya.”

Sasuke tapped Kishi on the shoulder as she was passing the underwear over the change room door, “How much are you charging me then?”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry Sasuke-sama. It’s not too much, only 480 ryo. I’m sure that it’s easy for you to afford that being Orochimaru’s pupil and all.”

“Hnn. We’ll see.”

“Sasuke-san,” came Mikomi’s nervous voice from behind the door, “I really like these clothes. I know they’re expensive but could I have them anyway?” Then she stepped out of the change room. The t-shirt and shorts were both snug hugging her body tightly, but seemed to have some room for growth. The t-shirt was so close to the same shade as her hair that the it was hard to see that it actually came down to the middle of her back if it wasn’t for the texture difference. Her scar that ran up to the side of her left eye became more pronounced with the tighter clothes. The shorts were completely black and came down to just below her knees. Mikomi’s slender figure was far more pronounced now, but her body tone gave off a sense of strength that was hidden before behind the baggy rags she had before. Sasuke once again felt Mikomi’s red eyes boring into his own, this time with a pleading, almost desperate look.

“Hnn. Fine, you can have them. Get her another set Kishi and I’ll pay.”

Mikomi’s face lit up when Sasuke agreed to get the clothing for her. And she smiled. The first true smile to cross her face since the day she saw her mother murdered in front of her eyes and told her father was dead. “Thank you Sasuke-san.”

Kishi’s eyes were glued to the scar that was running up along Mikomi’s throat to right near her left eye. She hadn’t noticed it before. The scar caused a shiver to run up her spine. It had to be one of the worst injuries she had seen on someone as young as Mikomi looked and it frightened her to think of how she could have gotten such a bad injury. When Mikomi noticed Kishi looking she turned her head slightly to hide the scar behind her hair stiffening slightly. Clearly there was a lot more to the girl than met the eye. Kishi swallowed quickly before she spoke again, “I’m glad that you chose to come here for your ninja apparel. Mikomi I’d be happy to give you the same discount that I always have given to Sasuke-sama since you seem to be his apprentice. Just come here for anything that you need.”

Relaxing a little bit, Mikomi thanked Kishi for her generous offer and followed Sasuke out the shop after paying.

Rice Lake North of the Village Hidden in Sound – 1 Week Later

Mikomi set the backpack of supplies Sasuke had given her on the ground as she stared out across the lake. It was only the 3rd time in her life that she had ever been to lake and the beauty of the place took her breath away. The trees that surrounded the small lake weren’t nearly as big as those closer to the Fire Country but still leant a calming atmosphere to the lake. With trees surrounding the lake the water was rather calm most of the time. On the southern edge there was a river that fed into the lake. Birds inhabited many of the trees, fish leapt in the water, insects buzzed through the air, and mammals large and small called this place home.

“This…is just…so…incredible,” Mikomi breathed as her eyes continued to drink in the beauty of the area. “How long are we going to be staying here Sasuke-san?”

“As long as it takes,” was Sasuke’s terse reply, “I have no desire to remain her any longer than necessary. I seriously hope that you pick this training up as fast and as diligently as the tree climbing. 3 weeks and you are almost as proficient in that exercise as me. I have no desire to stay her any longer than necessary. ”

Mikomi scowled, “Fine. You can be such a buzz-kill Sasuke-san.”

“This next exercise is another chakra control exercise,” Sasuke began, “and will teach you how to expel chakra at a constant, steady rate. The exercise is water walking.” With that said, Sasuke began to walk out onto the water of the lake. “We will be remaining here at the lake until you can successfully perform water walking and have learnt the ‘Katon: Grand Fireball Jutsu’ that you attempted before.”

Mikomi sighed, “Any chance you could take the time to teach me how to swim as well?”

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at this, “Maybe. I’ll make you another deal. If you can successfully remain standing on top of the water for 5 minuets in 24 hours time I will teach you how to swim while teaching you the Grand Fireball. If you are able to remain standing on the lake for 1 hour after 2 weeks time is up then I will give you a proper ninja hip pack complete with gear. In any case, I will give you a Sound headband and fully induct you as a Sound Shinobi after you have learned the Grand Fireball Jutsu.”

As Sasuke had predicted, Mikomi’s face lit up at the challenge and the rewards that were offered. “Could you break down the steps to properly walk on water for me then like you did with the tree climbing exercise?”

“It’s the same as tree climbing except you continually expel a constant amount of chakra. That’s it. So start practicing and stop wasting my time.”

Mikomi sighed as she watched Sasuke walk off to practice alone. ‘I’m not entirely sure why I sometimes feel depressed when Sasuke walks off and ignores me,’ Mikomi thought as she took off her boots, ‘I just feel better when he is around. I guess I just enjoy having him around.’ Mikomi brought herself up short with that thought. She tried to quash it as best she could, ‘NO NO NO! He is from the Sound. I won’t let myself feel anything except repulsion for those bastards. They destroyed my family and fucked up my life!’ Mikomi continued to try and spark that furious and hate-filled rebellious nature she had towards the Sound that she would drag up to fight through Sadisuto’s tortures, but found simply couldn’t find it in her to hate Sasuke. He may have thought of her as nothing more than a means to an end, but he was different from the other members of the sound. He was kind. To her. A tool. Even if the kindness was necessary to ensure her future station as a weapon for Orochimaru, Mikomi found she could not refuse it. Too much time had passed under the dark hand of Sadisuto for her to be able to reject it.

Sighing again, Mikomi did her best to clear her mind of the useless thoughts that had been flowing through it. ‘I’ve gotta get stronger so that I can escape from the Sound and Sasuke is willing to teach me.’ With that thought in mind Mikomi began to gather chakra to her feet to attempt the exercise.

Rice Lake – 24 Hours Later

“Grrrrraaaaahhh! Why. The. Hell. Can’t. I. Do. THIS???” Mikomi growled. She was incredibly frustrated. The most amount of time that she had been able to stay atop the water was barely more than a minute and a half and the time limit on the first part of Sasuke’s deal was fast approaching. This exercise had seemed like an easy and logical step in the progression of chakra control exercises, and one Mikomi thought that it would be fairly simply to master after having done so well at the tree climbing exercise. Problem was Mikomi hadn’t realized that expelling a constant amount of chakra from a point on the body is exponentially more difficult and draining than simply gathering and holding chakra. It didn’t help much that her ability to form and control chakra outside of her body was rather poor either. She could circulate the chakra to her feet easily enough, but she couldn’t expel it steadily very easily. Most of the time she ended up falling into the water from not pumping enough chakra into the water to stay standing on the water. However, Mikomi had discovered that if you fire out too much chakra in a sudden burst it repelled the water beneath her feet in a curtain that flew out and away from her body. She had to try again.

“Time’s almost up Mikomi. I’ll watch one last attempt to see if you have met the conditions on the deal I made for you.” Sasuke watched as Mikomi fell into the water of the lake, startled at this latest distraction. Having only fallen waist deep in the lake, Mikomi turned around and headed back to give water walking yet another attempt.

Reaching the shore, Mikomi faced the lake and began to concentrate as hard as she could. Taking a step onto the edge of the lake Mikomi could sense the water being pushed out from under her so she eased back the power. Taking a few steps at a time, she stood out from the shore on top of waist deep water.

1 minute passed.

Mikomi started to grip her teeth as she felt herself again starting to over use chakra and force the water out from under her. Struggling, Mikomi was able to rein in her power to the proper level. Sweat started to pour off of her brow as she continued to do everything she could to remain standing. ‘Keep expelling chakra down into the water. Keep it steady now.’

2 minutes passed.

‘Shit! Shit! Shit!’ Mikomi thought as she felt her chakra start to fluctuate rapidly, causing the water beneath her to bubble violently.

Her feet started to slip beneath the water.

In a last desperate ditch effort to stay standing Mikomi fired a burst of chakra through her feet to try and propel herself to the surface. The lake water surrounding Mikomi exploded up and away from her and she dropped into the water.

As Mikomi surfaced Sasuke delivered his verdict, “No good Mikomi. You didn’t even last 3 minutes so swimming lessons are not gonna happen. You’ve got your work cut out for you to be able to stand on the lake for 1 hour by the end of two weeks. You are clearly missing the trick to this exercise.” Sasuke turned around and left Mikomi to her own devices once again.

Dragging herself from the water, Mikomi flopped down onto the grass. Sighing, she simply stretched out and took a well earned break from the chakra exercises. ‘Okay, so I won’t know how to swim,’ Mikomi thought, ‘I won’t have to know if I can master this walking on water bit. I still want to learn how to though, both for fun and in case water walking isn’t an option. I’ll just rest a little bit longer, and then I’ll get cracking. Hehehe, I’m glad these clothes dry quickly even when I’m wearing them or else this exercise might get rather uncomfortable.’

Rice Lake – 1 Week Later

Standing on some rocks that jutted out into the lake Mikomi was tossing whatever was close at hand across the lake. She had been working herself to death every day to try and get better at water walking and she had barely been able to last longer than 10 minutes on the lake. It was rather depressing that despite the massive chakra capacity that she was told she had, she couldn’t stand on water longer than Sasuke. Bending down Mikomi picked up a stick that was lodged between two of the rocks. ‘What a funny looking stick,’ Mikomi almost giggled out loud, ‘it looks like the wood if frayed into pom-poms on either end, plus it’s curved like the moon. It looks like a bent baton.’ Mikomi smiled sadly at that thought. She had remembered another young girl in Ko Village had loved to play the baton she had gotten for her birthday. Her life in Ko Village had seemed like nothing more than distant and happy illusion. Until she had met Uchiha Sasuke and her life had gained a semblance of hope once again. She could and would become strong under Sasuke’s teaching. Strong enough to remove her accused collar and strong enough to get revenge on Orochimaru for what he had done to her family.

With a flick of her wrist, Mikomi spun the stick out across the water. Picking up another stone, Mikomi did a double take when she spotted the stick floating on the water. It was standing on the pom-pom like ends of the stick. Nothing else was touching the water. Mikomi began to rub her hands together in excitement as the idea came to her, ‘That’s it! That’s the trick I’ve been missing! I can’t just expel my chakra across the water. I have to spread it out over the water as well as downwards!’ Looking at the stick again another idea came to her, ‘My feet are also curved in an arch! Maybe that will make things easier yet again!’

Mikomi ran back to her campsite and tossed her boots on top of her pack and sat down to take a look at them. She noticed it immediately now that she had the idea in her head. The balls of her feet and the heels of her feet were the most heavily calloused parts of her feet. The insteps were rather soft and the skin between the heel and the ball of her feet was also softer. ‘If those two parts of my feet are the main ones touching the water then maybe I only need to expel my chakra from those two points to save as much energy as possible. I was trying to expel chakra from every point before, even my toes. Also I think that I was mainly focusing the expulsing of chakra into a pyramidal point before, making it so I was balanced on a single point rather than my whole foot. I can do this now!’

Mikomi ran to the edge of the lake and began to focus once again, this time imagining she was expelling the chakra from the balls and the heels of her feet only. She kept the image of chakra being expelled as a square block from those points. Taking a deep breath, Mikomi stepped out onto the water. She stood as solid as a rock. Smiling, she couldn’t believe how easy this was now that she had figured out the trick to it. And to think that it was all because she decided to play around with a pom-pom like stick. ‘Let’s see how long I can stand her, and maybe I can corner Sasuke into another deal to teach me how to swim.’

Rice Lake – Later That Night

Mikomi had a sly smirk on her face as she waited for Sasuke to return from his personal training routine as she continued cooking the fish she had caught for them that day. She had easily been able stand on the lake for an hour after figuring out the trick to it earlier that day and had spent much of the time running around and practicing landing on the water and not falling through after jumping. She had even tried to walk on her hands across the water, but had lost balance and fallen beneath the water. That had given her another idea for an exercise to do and that was to try and do rolls across the water and to even try lying on the surface. She couldn’t lie on the surface yet, but she could do the rolls on the water.

Humming a tuneless ditty, Mikomi started looking around for Sasuke again. Then, for the first time in her life, she thought she ‘sensed’ Sasuke’s chakra. Startled at this newfound sense, Mikomi whipped around and saw Sasuke approaching from directly behind her.

“Good job Mikomi,” Sasuke said, “seems that you are finally starting to be able to sense chakra patterns.” With a slight smirk Sasuke took a small bag out of his pocket, “I guess I’ll have to give you these soldier pills as a reward then.”

Mikomi caught the bag of soldier pills with a shocked look on her face, “You mean to tell me all those times you popped up behind me and scared the shit outta me was nothing but a test?” Sasuke nodded as he picked up a skewered fish that had been roasting. Slapping a hand to her face Mikomi groaned, “You really are impossible Sasuke.” Suddenly realizing what she had said Mikomi quickly corrected herself, “I mean Sasuke-san!”

“Hnn. You don’t need to use honorifics with me. I’ve been teaching you for over a month now and I had no desire to be called sensei from the beginning anyway.”

A small smile briefly crossed Mikomi’s features. She wasn’t sure why, but a warm feeling had spread across her chest and stomach, something she couldn’t remember feeling in a long time if ever. Ignoring the feeling, Mikomi snatched up one of the fish she had cooked and took a bit.

After swallowing Mikomi spoke again, “Sasuke, I was wondering if I could convince you to give me another chance to learn how to swim while you teach me the Grand Fireball Jutsu?”

Sasuke glanced over at Mikomi. This had been the first time she had ever made a suggestion like this so he figured he would see what she had in mind, “All right, what new deal did you want to make.”

“If I can stay on top of the lake while running for 2 whole hours you’ll teach me to swim.”

Sasuke thought it over. Running on the lake was the next step he needed Mikomi to take with water walking anyway, and the double time length seemed reasonable. “All right, it’s a deal. I’ll test you in six days. With the rate you’re going at right now I would suggest eating one of the soldier pills you earned to keep yourself going for the next 3 days straight. Otherwise you might not make it.”

Mikomi nodded, “Sounds like a good idea to me Sasuke, thanks.” With that, Mikomi popped a soldier pill into her mouth and stood up to begin practicing on the lake again. ‘Hehehe, he doesn’t know that I can already stay on the lake for 5 hours straight now, and that was with all of my messing around. Thank god for that funky looking stick I found.’

Orochimaru’s Chambers – 1 week later

Mikomi may have looked solemn and submissive on the outside as per her role as Orochimaru’s weapon, but on the inside she was feeling content. She had been given a very nice black ninja hip pack that she had strapped across her right leg. After Mikomi had been able to master the ‘Katon: Grand Fireball Jutsu’ in only a week Sasuke had given her the Sound headband, the cloth the same colour as her top. She had felt proud to earn such a thing from the distant Sasuke, and wore it on her left shoulder, proud of her accomplishment, of her power. She still hated and despised the village it represented but she could do nothing about it while she was still so weak.

As a bonus Sasuke had also taught her how to swim. Mikomi remembered the incredulous look on Sasuke’s face as she ran around the lake, flipping and spinning through cartwheels and handsprings over 2 hours. She had proven to Sasuke that he didn’t even need to take some extra time to help refine her technique. She had figured it out on her own.

Mikomi snapped back to reality when she heard Orochimaru speak, “So Sasuke-kun how goes the training of Mikomi-chan?”

“Fine. Her control is still severely lacking, but she figured out the water walking exercise faster than I expected. She seems to have the control to learn most jutsu now and I can start building her into the weapon you wanted. The fact that Mikomi was able to learn my ‘Katon: Grand Fireball Jutsu’ indicates she may be better off learning skills that require less chakra control in exchange for a large amount of chakra. I also noticed one other thing from watching her with my Sharingan: her chakra capacity seems to be enlarging at double the rate of a normal person. Soon she will begin to exceed me, and even you Orochimaru, in sheer volume of chakra.”

“Kukuku, that is excellent to hear. I hope the little ‘hellion’ keeps up this pace,” Orochimaru said with a grin, “After all, I would like to begin to use my weapon as soon as possible. I have high hopes for Yominokuni-chan after all.”