Hardened Heart |Sequel to The Strength of the Weak|

|2|

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Her first instinct is to run. To turn around and go back, because who knows if this will go the way she wants? What if she can't get Ryouichi back?

A sigh escapes Satomi's lips as she silently leaps down from the branch she was squatting on, swiftly hiding herself from sight of anyone by ducking into some shrubbery nearby, glancing peculiarly at the door disguised as a rock in the middle of the forest.

Her calculating eyes narrow dangerously on the well hidden entrance to the hideout she was stalking. Was this where Orochimaru currently was? She was 90% sure. If the people - if she can even call them people, anymore - she had witnessed exiting the hideout were anything to go by, she would easily bet that they were slaves of Orochimaru.

They were all mutilated in some way, one of them with overgrown teeth bared like a saber tooth tiger growling at seemingly nothing, its cat-like eyes trailing every movement in the vicinity. Another had bizarre spikes protruding from its lanky, limp arms, the creature terribly hunched over and the skin on its face sagging to the point where it looked like its face was melting off.

The three other creatures with them each had a different condition, but ultimately it was the one with the canine teeth who took charge, deeming it safe to 'begin the mission' because there was nobody nearby to spy on them.

Satomi had to hold back a snicker when they had left, the Uchiha girl having been spying on them from the shadows, like a competent kunoichi.

If the schedule she had been keeping track of was accurate, someone should be exiting the hideout in approximately 2 minutes. The door seemed to open every four hours, for some reason or another but it always involved somebody exiting the hideout. Nobody seemed to go in.

Taking a deep breath, Satomi steeled her nerves as the door opens, the familiar scent of a hospital with a hint of blood wafts into her nose. She molds her hands into the sign of the tiger, her body fading instantly and reappearing inside of the door before it closes, her perfected body flicker technique leaving no trace.

Satomi felt the urge to smirk, glancing behind her silently and watching the figure of Kabuto Yakushi, a foe she had previously feared, saunter away, oblivious to the intruder he had just allowed entrance to.

Without another moment of hesitation, Satomi blends her body into the shadows of the hallway, her cautious eyes memorizing the patterns and intricacies of the stone walls. There were three ways to go from her spot, straight ahead, left, or right, with no indication of which way could be holding Ryouichi.

Swallowing harshly, Satomi proceeds to hold a single hand up, concentrating on sensing any discrepancies of recognizable chakra nearby. To the right, there were multiple masses of swirling, malicious chakra emitting from behind the doors she could see in the dim light, none of them familiar in the slightest.

Straight ahead she felt a few sources of chakra, two of them she recognized as Orochimaru and Sasuke. Satomi's eyes widen slightly, almost unnoticeable, before she turns her head to the left, where she felt nothing, indecision befalling her.

She could venture straight ahead where Sasuke and Orochimaru were residing, where she suspected Ryouichi was just out of sensing range, right, towards all of the animosity, or she could go left, where she felt no chakra whatsoever.

With a resolute nod to herself, Satomi's muted steps take her farther down the hallway to her left, the thought that it would be better for her to try out her odds where there was no one she could sense just in case he was down there, and then make her way to the hallway with Sasuke and Orochimaru if it turned out Ryouichi was being kept down there instead forcing her to make the logical decision.