Chapter 2: Naruto's Awakening

Naruto woke up in a strange room, on a strange bed, and with a headache. He groaned. "Where am I?"

"Orochimaru's hideout."

Naruto snapped his entire body toward the direction of the voice, reaching for a kunai, but to no avail. He instead put his hands up ready to fight the person in front of him.

"Satsuki... What am I doing here?" Naruto asked. He didn't let his guard down.

"I brought you here, idiot."

"That much was clear the moment I saw you. Why am I here?" Naruto asked again.

"What does that matter? You should be happy. At least you don't have to stay in that pathetic village anymore," Satsuki said.

The pain in Naruto's head grew, memories flashing through his mind. "Arrgh." He palmed his head.

"What's wrong?"

Naruto dashed at Satsuki, pinning her to the wall. "What did you do to me?!"

"W-what? Nothing!"

The pain in Naruto's head was starting to feel unbearable. It felt like it was on fire. "You're lying. These...memories, They're fake. They can't be real."

"She's not lying," another voice interjected. "We didn't do anything to you. All we did, was release the seal."

Naruto looked toward the door to see Orochimaru. "What? What seal?"

Orochimaru smirked. "A memory alteration seal."

"No. They wouldn't... They wouldn't do that."

"Think about it, the sudden rush of memories. The way everything suddenly makes sense when it didn't before..." Orochimaru paused, gazing at the look of dawning realization on Naruto's face. "All this time, you've probably had this nagging feeling at the back of your mind. Ever present, but unnoticeable. Feeling like you were being restricted, caged, somehow."

Naruto stepped away from Satsuki. They... They lied to him. Manipulated him. They controlled him, tried to tame him.

His fist tightened. He looked at Orochimaru. This wasn't any time to dwell on the past. For now, he needed to figure out how to move forward. "What do you intend to do with me?"

"Well, I could lock you up, keep you prisoner, and experiment on you..."

"Or?"

"Or you could join us, I could train you, and you can exact your revenge on the hidden leaf village."

The answer was obvious. Even if Naruto didn't want to join Orochimaru, he didn't have a choice. But, there was one question on his mind that needed to be answered.

"What's in it for you?"

Orochimaru chuckled. "You're much smarter than that seal made you out to be. If you must know, my attack on the leaf failed. And it failed because of you. But with you as my weapon, the leaf won't stand a chance."

"I'm no weapon, Orochimaru."

"Merely a figure of speech," he assured.

"I'm sure. Then...when do I begin?"

Orochimaru smirked.