Mysterious Sound

The story of how Tayuya joined the Hidden Sound village.

Mysterious Sound: Melody I

Present

She ran as fast as she could with an ocarina clutched in her hand. It wasn't her first choice in instruments, but it had something that her flute didn't provide enough of, power. She willed her legs to carry her faster, but they soon gave up under her weight. If not because she saw her feet she wouldn't be able to tell if she still had them, she felt nothing below the knees, as if that portion of her legs had disappeared. The top part of her legs felt numb and the odd sensation of numbness started to climb to her waist. If it reached her heart, she knew she would die.

Tayuya picked herself off the cold stone floor and tried her hardest to continue her desperate run for survival. Using the wall for support, she moved forward little by little, inch by inch, but that was not fast enough. She could hear an angry hissing snake following her close behind. 'He's not even coming himself, he's just sending the snakes,' she thought. Yet she knew that in her injured condition, that would be enough.

There was hardly any light in the long corridor. It was like an abyss of darkness waiting for her to fall into it. She would choose that over the snakes any day, or night, she wasn't sure of the time flow anymore. She glared at the ocarina, squeezing it with burnt fingers even if it caused more pain. That stupid thing started it all and ruined it all.

Tayuya continued her failed efforts to get away from the snakes. She no longer felt her legs, worse yet she couldn't move them. She collapsed on her knees as the feeling of numbness reached her chest. Her breaths were labored and uneven. Sweat ran down the side of her face, as she realized she was cornered, surrounded by snakes. With a sudden pain in her heart, she fell to the cold hard stone floor. Her cheek felt as if it had touched ice coming in contact with the surface. Her mouth was filled with the taste of blood.

Tayuya held on to her last bit of life, hoping and wishing with all her heart and soul that Orochimaru would regain control. She blamed herself for his terrible fate, even if she knew it wasn't her fault. It was that cursed ocarina. At that moment, in mere seconds her life flashed before her eyes in her subconscious mind. 'It's the end,' Tayuya thought, yet even so, she didn't let go of the fragile thread of life left in her.

Past

It had been several days since he left the Hidden Leaf village after another failed mission. Things had not gone well for him since then. Although he had escaped, his research was left behind and with that came many set backs. He attempted to recover it, but that proved to be a mistake. He should have known better than to think there would still be useful traces left without traps. Now he was starting to doubt himself after days of running away from the ANBU and trying to survive.

He had entered a cave seeking shelter from the growing storm. The violent wind, dark clouds, roaring thunder and harsh rain, felt most unwelcome in his exhausted being. He was certain he had managed to put a considerable distance between himself and the ANBU. He knew they would cease their chase if he got far enough; they had more important business to tend to back at the Hidden Leaf village.

As if drawn by a mysterious force, Orochimaru made his way deeper into the cave. He came to what appeared to be a dead end, except he knew it wasn't. He could feel the chakra emanating from the apparently solid stone wall. He searched for a crack on the wall and found one at the upper right corner, then got to work on using that weak point to make his way deeper into the cave. Once that wall was out of the way, he followed the charka to another cave chamber with torches of blue fire on its walls.

Surrounded by statues that were apparently guarding it, Orochimaru found a glass box. Being it made of pure transparent glass, he could see the ocarina inside it. It appeared to be a regular instrument, but if it was, it wouldn't be so heavily guarded. Sure enough the enchanted statues were not the only guardians, yet the shield of chakra surrounding the circle of statues was relatively easy to break, having weakened over time. The next step was fighting the guardians themselves.