Naruto : Venom

Sound Base, Orochimaru's Prison Complex

Orochimaru and I walk into his Prison Complex. It is packed full of people, not one cell is empty. There is a wide circular room surrounded by cells. He must release prisoners to fight right here. Most of those in the cells have a crazed look about them.

Orochimaru turns to me, "You need another fire heart. Any preference? What traits do you want?"

This feels wrong. It is like I am shopping for new clothes. I feel dirty, unclean. "One with a large chakra supply would be nice. Two of my hearts are from gennin, one is at a chunin level and the last a jonin."

Orochimaru grabs a list off the wall. As he is reading through it he asks me, "Where did you get your hearts from?"

"My current batch or all of them?"

He shrugs. "Might as well tell me all of them. My curiosity would demand it anyways."

"The first three came from one of your gennin teams." He quirks an eyebrow at me. "Thanks for that by the way. You gave me water, earth and lighting hearts."

"I always did wonder what happened to those three. What were their names?" He thinks for three seconds. "Must have been unimportant. Continue." He goes back to reading the list of prisoners.

"The wind heart came from a Suna chunin. He killed my parents." I watch Orochimaru's reaction carefully.

"You're parents are dead? How unfortunate. At least you have me." Oh Kami, he's trying to link himself to me as a parental figure? How fucked up is that?

I clear my throat. "I lost a heart, my original fire heart, to an enemy."

"Who?" He looks up from the list this time. He's genuinely curious. This will surprise him.

"The same person who cut my head off. Kisame Hoshigaki." I smirk at him. That's right, you aren't the only S-rank threat I've walked away from.

"Kisame? From Kiri?" Orochimaru sounds doubtful.

"I assume so. He was wielding Samehada, that is usually a big give away." I watch Orochimaru carefully. I want to see how he reacts. What I witness doesn't make sense.

He's proud.

"Consider me impressed. The Sound Four might not be enough to test you. I may have to step in myself. Now, I believe you're one heart short of a complete list? Where did you get your lightning heart from?"

"It isn't as impressive as fighting Kisame, so be prepared to be disappointed. Aoi Rokusho. He was a missing nin from Konoha that Sasuke and I bumped into on a mission. We killed him and I took his heart. I only wish it was fire."

"He was listed as a B-rank target in Konoha's bingo book. He had the Sword of the Thunder God if memory serves."

I nod. "Yep. Brought it back to Konoha. Right now I'm wishing we kept it for Sasuke to use."

Orochimaru is surprised. I think, his body straightened minutely. All I can see is his back while he's reviewing the list. "You didn't want it for yourself?"

"Nah, swords aren't my thing. I'm more of an overwhelming force, swords require grace and precision. That's Sasuke's forte. I'm a sledgehammer, a juggernaut. Use me when you want something demolished or need someone who can take a ridiculous amount of abuse. Sasuke is a scalpel, use him when you need something done with care. Sure I can do a delicate job if I have too, but it will never be as good as a job as Sasuke would do." I extend out a lightning whip. "Plus, isn't it a bit redundant? I can already make ten of these, what use do I have for a sword made of electricity?"

"Interesting." Orochimaru says. "The Hokage didn't break up your team? She left you together? It doesn't make sense. Usually teams have one specialty, they are focused around one aspect that every member has."

I laugh, the pleasant sound startles Orochimaru so much that he looks away from the list.

"She would never break us up. Do you have any idea how effective we were? She could toss us in any situation and we had the tools to come out alive. We took on everything from a fully transformed jinchuriki to S-ranked missing nin as gennin. Imagine what we will be able to do in a few years!

"So you were part of the group to defeat Gaara!" Orochimaru exclaims. He knows Gaara by name, that is not good. Suddenly he gets very still. The temperature in the room drops. "Tell me, was it you who summoned the Toad?"

That is right, he has major issues with Jiraya and Tsunade. It would explain the killing intent aimed at me right now.

"Please, you think I would settle for Toads?" The killing intent vanishes. "Actually, that is one of the things I want you to teach me. How to summon."

He turns back to the list. How many names does he have to look through? "Oh, you want to sign the Snake Contract?" He sounds oddly smug.

"Nope, I want to get my own. Snakes are cool and all, but I don't think we would mesh well."

"Hmm..." Orochimaru appears deep in thought. "I find that summons are based more on personality than other traits. I myself am an exception. I look rather snake like, but I also act like one. You are a creature of opportunity. I expect you to get a predator, or maybe even a scavenger as your summon animal. A hyena perhaps? Maybe a vulture?" Orochimaru straightens and points at the list. "Here we are, someone who will work."

I read over his shoulder to see what their name is. There isn't a name, simply Test Subject 3473.

"I've only recorded information about her, I have yet to do any tweaking." He makes it sound so innocent. "Go on in to the Arena. I'll open her cell and she'll come out. Fair warning, the prisoners are trained to attack whoever is in the arena with them that isn't wearing a Sound headband. Off you go!" He shoos me into the arena.

I hear a lock click open, and a door slide. A woman walks out of the open cage. "What's this?" She says condescendingly. "They want me to kill a child?" An insane grin splits her face. She's missing most of her teeth. "It has been a long time since I killed a child. Since before I got here." She's a child murderer. I have no qualms about what will happen next.

She walks right up to me, no fear in her eyes. I let her get close, close enough to touch me. She lovingly runs a hand through my hair and grips the back of my head. "Any last words dear?" She coos sweetly at me.

I clear my throat. "Yes, I'll be taking your heart. Thank you for coming so close to me, it makes this much easier." I see her eyes widen in surprise at my nonchalantly said words. At that exact moment I spear the Jiongu into her chest and let it take her heart. I rip it out of her body within half a second, it is before her face when she dies. She got to see her beating heart as her last image. Good, child murders deserve no less.

I let the Jiongu place her heart into my back where the fire mask is. The entire prison complex is completely silent the entire time. Everyone is watching me in either fear or disgust. I'm finally back at 100%. Five hearts, one of each element. I need to take better care of them, I shouldn't be going through so many this quickly.

I leave her corpse on the floor and go back to Orochimaru. He's pleased at me, happy for me. How strange. All I did was kill a murder.

"Wonderful show Alvarcus. I have no doubt the prisoners will be much easier to control for a few weeks. The fear of our own resident Heart Thief will keep them in line." Orochimaru says.

I sigh, "I'm never escaping that title."

Orochimaru laughs. "Kukukuku, even if it is from Konoha it is very accurate, I find myself quite fond of it."

"Yay." I blandly reply. "Can we go see if Sasuke is up? Also I want to know who the Sound Four bet on. That promises to be very interesting, in fact I think I deserve a cut as the winner."

"Kukukuku, maybe you would do well as a Snake summoner."

...

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