The Harsh Truth

Chapter 4

Anko pouted, looking at the group of Genins around her. Why did Orochimaru-sensei invite all these losers on the training trip? They had left at first dawn, two days after having her signing the Snake summons, and she had barely gotten down the Sen'eijashu, that she had found herself there, among other Genins from Konoha, all privately taught by Orochimaru, and all eager to get on with the special training regimen the snake sannin had prepared for them.

It took her a moment to get used to the swaying motion of the ship, and she couldn't repress a smirk, seeing how some of the boys there had turned slightly green, suffering from sea sickness. They all seemed so tense, and frowning, a bunch of stuck-up kids, probably sons and daughters of famous ninjas, all that had pleaded her sensei to take them as disciples. She was the only one there taken for her skills and quickness in learning, that much, she was sure.

She didn't know what to think of the first rule for the trip: absolute silence for the duration of the training regime. They could only speak to Orochimaru-sensei and backwards, no speaking among one another, to increase competiveness and the training results: that much the snake sannin had said.

She turned around, staring at the mass of water in front of her, and inwardly frowned, letting her mind roll off to what Naruto, and Itachi, were probably doing right now, probably the clan's boy was going to get some private training with his clansmen, while Naruto…he was probably alone, moping. Well, when she came back, stronger than ever, she'd teach something to Naru-chan herself! Then the boy would in turn be grateful to his Anko-sama/Hime, and would in turn become her manservant. She'd obviously treat the boy well, and protect him, but she just couldn't help her imagination, when the thought of a Naruto with puppy eyes and dog ears coming over to rest his head on her lap, came barging inside her head.

Chuckling to herself, she, like all the others, didn't notice the look on Orochimaru's face, which was cold, and calculative.

"The first batch of subjects is apparently healthy: some suffer from sea sickness while some don't. There are five male and five female specimens, and all are passable shinobis. Of these, one out of each group has a summoning contract, but none have any Doujutsu. They are all orphans…" as Orochimaru thought this, coldly analyzing the meat-bags he had at his disposal, he hoped that some would survive the experiment…at least he'd have better data for the second batch.

Meanwhile, Amachi was patiently waiting on Jiro Island: one of the four great islands that composed the land of the sea. The other three being Taro, Demon and Mother, while the latter was the main island of the archipelago, out of all the islands available, Jiro island was the smallest, the most ignored, and thus the perfect place for Orochimaru's experiments on underwater ninjas. Sure, the research was going a bit on the slow side, but it wasn't that much of a problem, he was sure that, couple of years top, he'd get all the results and the perfect specimens.

Right about then, one of his workers warned him of the arrival hour for the ship Orochimaru was on, together with his test subjects for that new experiment, involving a cursed seal of sort and strange chakra. Still, he couldn't help but smirk at the rooms that would hold the test subjects for the following days…and then, if there were any survivors, the rooms to analyze their living tissues, their organs, their bodies were already prepared.

He was thoroughly going to enjoy dissecting those bodies, and, while he didn't want to admit it, it had always been his greatest desire, kept secret because it was weird, even by shinobis standards, to dissect a still living woman. Why not a man? Well, he had already done that, of course, so right about then, all he needed was just a healthy woman, or even a girl would suffice, to start dissecting. Only when Orochimaru-sama would have given his consent, obviously, but it wasn't like he had to wait much…only a couple of hours.