The Fallacy of Greed

Hello! This is the final one-shot in the ‘The Fallacy of…” series and it is an Orochimaru x OC. It might be a little darker than the other ones, but I will still try to inject some humor into it. Enjoy!

The Fallacy of Greed- Part 1.

“So you are finally waking up,” a deep voice murmured somewhere in the background.
“Good morning, Mai,” the voice continued and a tied down female opened her eyes to look around.
The first thing she saw was the one who had woken her. He had bright yellow eyes, which were slanted in a snake-like manor. This man was wearing a long olive green shirt with an odd purple bow around his waist.
She looked around the room and noticed that they were in a large cave and there were several pipelines going in and out of the wall. Currently, she was chained to one of the walls while in an upright position so she could easily glare into her captor’s eyes.
“You don’t remember how you got here, do you?” he mocked and she narrowed her eyes.
She hated to admit that he was right. In her mind, there was no recognition of what had happened to bring her to this dark, damp place in front of this ill-meaning, threatening man.
“I brought you here for a very important reason and you should be proud that I chose you,” he stated matter of factly- as if he expected her to understand him.
He reached into his sleeve and pulled out a needle. “My name is Orochimaru and in case you didn’t know, I devise experiments to perform on humans.”
Mai’s eyes flashed between the snake man and the needle. This was not good.
Finally, she cleared her throat and said, “What will that do?”
Orochimaru twirled the needle between his fingers. “It is supposed to create chakra rich blood, but I have not had much luck with it lately. You are the fifth person I am trying it on.”
Her jaw tightened when she realized that her four predecessors were most likely no longer alive.
“This could kill me,” she muttered and renewed hatred for the strange yellow eyed man swirled in her stomach.
He chuckled at her expression and walked up to her, leaving only a few feet between them. “Yes, it could, but if this works… you will never be short of chakra as long as you are alive.”
Mai raised one eye brow at this fact. It made her curious about how this could be possible, but she had no reason to trust him. She still didn’t know how she got here!
“So any last words in case this kills you?” he said, but his tone gave away how much he did not care about anything she said.
“My village will avenge me. They know you have been lurking about our forests and they will know you are responsible for my death,” Mai bit out, growing angrier by the second.
This man, this thing, had no right to just take her and give her something that could kill her. Her hands became clenched in her bonds and she wished that they would shatter so she would be able to exact her revenge.
She did not want to die.
Orochimaru took two more strides toward her and brought the needle to her neck.
“Good night.”
Mai felt the thin needle penetrate her skin and instantly, she could feel her chakra growing unbalanced.
She took one final breath and her eye lids drooped.
Everything went black.

…

“Good morning, Mai.”
This time, her eyes snapped open at the first noise she had heard.
She was alive.
Her gaze traveled around the room and she noticed that this one was smaller. Orochimaru was in the middle of it and he had a self-absorbed grin on his lips.
Just like last time, she was chained to the wall and there was nothing she could do to get out of it.
“Congratulations, you survived the shot.”
“So what? I am still here,” she retorted with a sneer.
He chuckled and took a few steps toward her. “You don’t seem to understand the situation.”
Narrowing her eyes, she bit out, “Yes I do. You kidnapped me, stabbed me with a needle and now I’m locked up in some sort of jail cell. You’re just going to keep experimenting on me until I die.”
His smile faltered and he changed the subject by saying offhandedly, “Your village never did understand my work. I do not experiment on people. I make them better.”
Mai growled, her anger once again getting the best of her. “Lies! You use people for your own sick needs and you don’t even care! You sick son of a-”
Slap.
“Remember you place, girl.” His voice was low and threatening and she bit her tongue to stop herself from hissing in pain.
He was much faster than she had expected. One second he was a few feet away from her, but the next he had already slapped her.
"As I was saying, you do not understand the situation. Since the shot worked, I will not have to do any more experiments on you."
She looked at him doubtfully; hoping to believe he was telling the truth, but all the while knowing it was a lie.
"Does that mean I am free to go?" she stated blandly, trying to keep any hopefulness from showing in her voice.
Orochimaru chuckled and replied as if it was funny, "Of course not. Your chakra rich blood is of good use to me. I wouldn't just let you go so someone with bad intentions could use you."
Her eyes narrowed to slits at the irony and she suppressed a low growl. Each second, she was becoming sicker and sicker with disgust for this man. Every time he opened his mouth something negative spurred out.
"Now there are two things I could do to use your blood," he continued as he started pacing around the small room. "I could extract it with a needle, or I could simply suck it out."
This time, Mai couldn't stop herself from looking completely revolted.
"Using a needle would be redundant so I guess the only option is the one that made your pretty little face contort in disgust."
He stopped pacing and stroked her jaw line with his knuckles. An involuntary shiver raced down her spine and she grit her teeth.
"It just so happens that I have fangs... you really are one lucky girl," he whispered as he gave her an eyeful of his razor sharp teeth.
For a split second, her anger washed away and a deep fear replaced it. He was actually going to suck her blood.
Just as quickly as it came, the fear disappeared and the resolve to escape her captor took over.
Mai clenched her fists and gathered chakra within them, ready to try and break out of the chains.
Orochimaru noticed her small attempt at freedom and put his hand around her neck. "Don't even bother. I have blocked your chakra."
She furrowed her brow and wondered how she could have chakra rich blood, but be unable to use it. Her concentration went back to her fists, but it didn't seem to be working. At first, the chakra had come at her command but now, it was receding.
Her heartbeat quickened and she struggled to keep her face blank. Some desperation and panic seeped through and the snake-man smiled.
His hand was still around her throat so he could easily feel her erratic pulse.
"Don't tell me you're actually afraid," he mocked as he shifted his grip to the back of her head.
He leaned closer to her and she realized that he intended to bite her.
"W-Wait! I haven't... I haven't had time to recover yet... isn't it standard procedure to let the patient recover after the operation?" she stuttered as she tried to do everything in her power to stop him from biting her.
"Nice try, but there is nothing you can do now. I am in control," he sneered as he brought his fangs to her throat and sank them in.
She gasped at the pain and clenched her eyes shut to stop any tears from slipping out. With each passing second, she could feel her energy being stolen from her and a deep, aching throb beat within her chest at the soul crushing revelation that there was nothing she could do to stop him.
He pulled his fangs out and licked his lips, satisfied.
Looking at her face, he saw that her eyes were still shut and a deep frown was seated on her face.
“Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Orochimaru whispered into her ear.
She did not move and he knew that she was too weak to fight so he took out the key to her chains and untied her.
Mai’s hands dropped to her sides when they were released, but other than that, she did not move.
He seemed somewhat irritated by her lack of response so he grabbed her chin to make her look up at him.
She opened her green eyes and kept them blank, letting no emotion be shown.
“I will be back tomorrow,” he stated as he let go of her and walked out of the jail cell. He locked the door behind him and Mai could hear his footsteps as he left the vicinity.
When she was sure that he was out of hearing range, she released the breath she had been holding and brought her hand to her small wound.
She leaned against the wall and slid down to sit down.
So this was what her days were going to be like.
Mai glanced around her cell and saw that it was embarrassingly empty, with the exception of a small mat meant for sleeping.
Her eyes wandered back to the chains and an idea popped into her head.
The next time Orochimaru would come for her blood, she would not make it as easy.

...

Mai heard Orochimaru coming long before she saw him.
In the caves, his every footstep echoed and sent a shiver down her spine.
“Hello, Mai,” he greeted her with a fake smile, which instantly disappeared when he saw what was around her neck.
“Hello, Orochimaru,” she replied with an equally fake smile.
He opened her cell door and stepped inside. “What is that?”
She gave him an innocent stare and replied, “I have no idea what you are talking about. Everything here seems normal.”
The snake-man narrowed his eyes and took a few strides to come stand in front of her. He grabbed her by the shoulders and shoved her against the wall.
“What the hell is around your neck?” he sneered as he inspected the metallic material which concealed her throat.
“Oh that!” she exclaimed, not even the slightest bit worried about his proximity. “It used to be part of by armor for my wrists, but I thought it would be more useful around my throat.”
His eyes narrowed even further, if possible, and he growled, “Did I not already tell you the consequences of disobedience?”
Mai was about to give a smart retort, but suddenly, Orochimaru drew back and punched her in the stomach.
She hissed in pain, but tried to give him minimal satisfaction of having hurt her so she did not double over and remained in an upright position.
He frowned and instead grabbed her throat. His chakra was not blocked so he used it to bend and rip the metal, which had taken her almost all night to fashion around her throat.
It took him little effort to discard the material and he then punched her in the stomach again.
This time, she was unable to hold in her pain and a small groan escaped her lips.
However, Orochimaru was not done with her yet so he drew a kunai and said, “This is just a warning. If you ever do something like this again, I will do much, much worse.”
Her eyes widened at the sight of the kunai, but she was unable to move fast enough to avoid it because it was instantly embedded within her right arm.
He pulled it out and crimson blood poured out.
Then, he pushed her up against the wall again, grabbed the back of her head and sank his fangs into her flesh.
Mai struggled at first, but her right arm was useless and his grip was too tight for her left arm to be able to do anything.
The bite was deeper than last time so with each heartbeat, a white, hot pain radiated from her throat.
Finally, Orochimaru retracted his fangs and let go of her. Without anything to hold her up, she fell to the ground with a dull thud.
He stepped over her barely conscious body and locked her cell.
“I will be back tomorrow.”
His footsteps echoed away and Mai groaned in pain.
Her arm, throat and stomach were engulfed in pain and there was little she could do about it.
With the last of her energy, she used the sleeve of her shirt to wrap around the stab wound to lessen the bleeding.
Then, her eyes began to droop and things started to become blurry.
Mai closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
The silence closed down around her and everything went black.

...

The first thing Mai recognized when she woke up was the familiar feeling of pain.
All her muscles were stiff and her head felt much heavier than it should have been.
The second thing she recognized, though, was a little more pleasant.
A sweet, heavenly smell wafted toward her nose and she comprehended that it was the scent of pancakes drenched in syrup.
For a second, she thought she was hallucinating, but when she opened her eyes, she saw a plate of pancakes by the entrance to the cell.
Her eyes lit up and her stomach growled in anticipation. She had not eaten a single thing for over two days.
She reached forward, but then, reality came crashing down.
Mai was chained to the wall.
The mirth disappeared from her eyes as she realized the cruel trick. Orochimaru had brought her food, but there was no way she could get to it.
With a sigh, she closed her eyes and tried to calm her emotions. She did not know how much longer she could endure this physical and mental anguish before she would break down.
“Those pancakes smell delicious. Don’t you want to have a bite?” the voice of her captor broke through her thoughts.
Mai’s eyes snapped open and she turned her head to stare at him. He was just outside her cell.
With a frown, she understood that he had seen her reaction and he was probably enjoying seeing her suffer.
Sick bastard.
He opened the cell door and stepped inside, picking the plate of pancakes up.
Then, he walked toward her and using a fork, cut a small piece. He brought the fragrant morsel of food in front of her.
Her mouth watered and she tried to stop a beady, animalistic stare from overtaking her eyes.
“Do you want me to give this to you?” he mocked as he watched her inner battle.
One part of her wanted to beg him for the food, but the other wanted to spit in his face.
“No, you have probably poisoned it,” she replied to his question.
His face split into a grin. “Alright, suit yourself. I guess I will just eat it myself.”
Orochimaru stood mere inches away from her as he placed the piece of pancake in his mouth.
Mai’s breathing become irregular and she had to bite her tongue to stop herself from saying something she would regret later.
“Oh, I can’t stand seeing you in so much pain. Here, have a piece,” he said in a sickly sweet tone as he cut another piece of pancake.
Her eyes widened, but then narrowed when he put the piece in his mouth.
She was about to curse him for lying, but then he leaned forward and crashed his lips into hers.
He used her momentary shock to pry her mouth open and slip his tongue in.
By then, an alarm was ringing in her head and she started struggling to get out of the uncomfortable situation.
Orochimaru used his tongue to maneuver the piece of pancake into her mouth and then he pulled away from her.
Her facial expression was a mix of shock, disgust, and confusion.
She clenched her mouth shut and even though it revolted her to no end, she swallowed the piece of pancake.
“There. Now unless you want me to feed the rest of the pancakes to you like that, you must promise that you will never, ever disobey me like you did yesterday,” he said lightly, even though the threat was heavy.
Mai’s mind raced to figure out what to say, but the options were clear. Be French-kissed to death by a disgusting snake or be obedient.
“Alright, I will be obedient,” she bit out with growing anger. She hated to be cornered into making a decision.
“Good girl,” he congratulated with a mocking smile as he untied her from her bonds.
Her hand instinctively went to her wounded arm, while her gaze defensively wandered to the pancakes.
“Enjoy,” he said as he held the plate out to her.
Mai took it and muttered a small ‘thank you’. He chuckled and walked out of the cell, locking it behind him.
“I will be seeing you again tonight.”

...

Mai leaned against the cell wall and exhaled loudly.
There was absolutely nothing to do in the cell.
On the first day after her deal with Orochimaru, she had slept to try and heal her injuries.
The second, she had stared at the wall and imagined a clock to be there.
The third, she made a makeshift calendar with her dried blood on the wall and started at it.
On the fourth, she got tired of staring so instead, she counted to a million out loud.
Today was the fifth day after the deal, seventh overall, and she was completely depressed.
It had only been a week, but she already felt like hitting her head repeatedly against the wall.
Sure, Orochimaru brought her food every day but that did not mean she was happy.
He had already drunk her blood today so she was ‘free’ for the next 24 hours. Mai took a second to mentally curse him for blocking her chakra, but then really started thinking about her situation.
She had chakra rich blood, but her chakra was blocked.
It seemed redundant, and at the back of her mind, she knew that there was a way to break free.
The gears in her mind started turning and she realized that in order to free chakra, some chakra is needed in the first place.
She had her blood and if she was somehow able to get it in a circle around her she would be able to do the hand signs necessary and the blood would execute it for her.
A rare smile crossed her lips as she unwrapped the bandage around her arm. The wound was mostly healed, but there was still a bit of an open wound.
Taking a deep breath, the dug her finger into the wound and a trickle of blood came down.
Mai took the blood and started smearing it in a circle around her. Soon enough, it was complete so she recovered her wound.
Then, she sat in the middle with her hands together as if she was praying. She did the hand seals necessary to free someone from blocked chakra and waited.
Her blood seemed to grow a shade lighter and she started feeling hot.
Mai's heart started beating faster and she could feel her chakra swirling inside her belly.
She smiled and stood up, eager to see if her plan had worked.
Getting in an attacking position, she did the seals for the shadow clone jutsu.
There was a puff of smoke and her doppelganger was then standing in front of her. She smiled at herself, but then gasped at her wretched appearance.
Her hair was all tangled, her clothes were covered in blood and she looked much paler than she remembered.
The clone gestured to the entrance to the cell and she nodded.
They both did the seals for Chidori and ran at the door with their hand covered in lightning. The door blew apart and they were standing on the other side.
Mai made her clone disappear and she cautiously started running down the hall.
She had no idea where Orochimaru was during the day and she also had no idea how to get out of the base.
Her heart was beating even quicker and she quickly prayed that no one would find her. She knew that the punishment for such disobedience was going to be horrible.
For half an hour, she tiptoed around and did not see a single soul so she was rather suspicious when she found the exit. After checking for traps, she went outside and then broke into a sprint.
She did not dare so stop and celebrate.
There would hopefully be time for that later.

…

Orochimaru walked down the hallway to his prisoner.
It was time for him to drink her blood again and of course, mock her about it as well.
"Hello, Mai," he said as he turned the corner and looked into the cell.
His eyes narrowed and he frowned, his previous light mood completely gone.
The door was open and it looked like it had been blown apart by Chidori.
He punched the wall with a grimace.
Mai had somehow gotten her chakra back.
Orochimaru glanced at the blood circle in the middle of the room and understood what she had done.
He turned around and left to go get Sasuke. They were going to go find Mai and this time, he would be far more careful about how he took 'care' of her.
Finding Sasuke was not hard considering that the teen was always training.
"Sasuke, I have a mission for us to do," he said in that misleadingly calm voice.
The Uchiha sighed in annoyance and followed his mentor outside.
"We are going to find an escaped prisoner. Your job is to fight her. There is no need to hold back, as long as she lives through it," Orochimaru ended darkly.
He wanted her to suffer for going against his command.

…

Mai ran through the forest as quickly as she could.
She had been running for over a day now because when she had left it was the evening and now it was midnight of the next day.
The only time she had stopped was to drink some water from a stream and eat a few wild berries.
As she continued to run, she realized that she was not getting tired.
It was very strange and she decided that Orochimaru had been telling the truth when he said that she would never run out of chakra as long as she was alive.
Another day passed just as quickly and still she did not stop to rest.
Mai wondered if maybe she would never stop running away, but she was sure that she was overreacting.
Right now, she was running toward Earth Country. Her plan was to run as far northwest as she could so that she would go into the land that was not mapped.
There was a mountain range between the northwestern border of Earth Country and the unknown land so her goal was to cross those mountains.
If Orochimaru was going to try and track her chakra, she knew that it would be impossible if she was beyond the mountains.
Suddenly, there was a loud crashing noise and a huge cloud of dust rose just ahead of her.
Her breath hitched in her throat and she stopped dead in her tracks.
It was a giant snake.
The snake was a deep purple color and Orochimaru was sitting on its head. There was also a boy, but she did not know who he was.
"Hello there, Mai. I have to admit, you got a lot farther than I expected you to," the snake-man stated and she cursed.
"Sasuke, go get her," he continued and the boy jumped down from the snake's head. He drew his sword and started running toward her.
Mai narrowed her eyes and did a few hand seals. She had nothing to defend or attack with so she summoned a long katana.
Sasuke’s sword started to glow a bright blue and she instantly recognized that his sword would be able to cut anything.
Her face went blank as she dodged his blows and started thinking about what to do to win. The first thing she needed to do was get the sword away from him so she stopped for a split second and made several clones.
She knew that he was an Uchiha and that meant he had to activate his Sharingan in order to see which of the clones was real. That gave her a one second opportunity during when he closed his eyes to activate the ocular power.
Just as planned, the teen paused for a second and closed his eyes. At that moment, one of her clones burst from underground and kicked his sword away.
Another clone then grabbed the sword and used an Earth Jutsu to disappear underground.
Phase one complete.
Sasuke landed on his feet and glared before running straight at her.
Mai used her katana to block his blows and meanwhile, she ordered her clones to start running toward Orochimaru.
She jumped a few feet away from the Uchiha and did the seal for the jutsu that allowed her to switch places with one of her clones.
It worked and Sasuke frowned when he ended up punching through a clone.
“Not bad,” Orochimaru complimented when the real Mai shot out of the bushes and threw her katana at him.
She was not happy that he knew she was there, but she should not have underestimated him.
He caught the katana and said, “I guess I will have to defeat you with your own weapon.”
Mai’s face split into a grin and she yelled, “Katsu!”
The katana exploded and Orochimaru cursed in pain before falling to his knees, bleeding. He was not going to die, but he would be unable to continue the battle.
She briefly looked down to where Sasuke was and saw that he had picked up her real katana.
When using the switching jutsu, it is a challenge to teleport with objects at hand so Orochimaru should have known that the katana she had thrown was a decoy.
Then, she turned around and started running again.
Sasuke was probably not going to chase her and Orochimaru would want to heal because she was sure that his large pride would make him want to defeat her himself.
Thus, Mai had a few hours to run away from the area and come up with another plan for the next battle.
“You won’t get away from me!” she heard him yelling far behind her and she sighed.
This was definitely not where she expected to be a week ago.
Soon enough, she was back in the direction of the northwestern mountains and she allowed herself to relax a fraction of a degree.
Even if it took her countless battles, she would escape.
“Hello, girl, you are coming with me,” a deep voice suddenly said in front of her.
Mai originally thought it was Orochimaru, but there was something different. This voice was more... malicious.
She stopped running and got in a defensive position. Whoever this was, she had no intention of going with them.
“Boo!” a much shriller voice yelled behind her and suddenly, she felt herself being pulled into some sort of vortex.
What...? Were there two people...? Why was she spinning...?
Mai fell to the ground with a thud and then jumped up with wide eyes.
She was in a tunnel and a shadowy figure wearing a black cloak with head clouds on it was standing in front of her.
“Who are you?” she questioned as she backed away.
“Your new owner,” he replied, the voice was deep again.
Anger swirled in her stomach and she bit out, “No! I refuse to be another person’s possession!”
Suddenly, she was flying back and she could barely register what had happened. Pain blossomed in her stomach so she guessed she had just been punched.
Her back collided with the wall and she crumpled to the floor.
Her eyes went wide at the amount of power that had taken and she could only stare in shock at the figure which had done this so her.
“Orochimaru may have been foolish enough to let you escape, but I will not be that idiotic. You are valuable and I intend to keep you for a very, very long time,” he continued and her heart skipped a beat.
This person was so much stronger than Orochimaru and for once, she was actually terrified.
“Now listen well for I will not repeat myself. You will only speak when spoken to and if you so much as think about escaping, I will make you suffer. You will not complain, beg or cry. You will call me Madara-sama and if I hear you mention that snake vermin’s name, you will also be punished,” he finished with a dark sneer.
Mai bit back a gasp when she heard his name. Madara. Was this the Uchiha Madara?
She did not ask and he stepped close enough for her to see that he was wearing a bright orange mask and that one blood red eye was glaring at her.
“Come,” he ordered as he started walking down the hallway.
There was some hesitation, but after remembering his threats, she followed.
She was so confused and she still did not understand what had happened.
Just a few short moments ago she was running from Orochimaru, but now, she had a much larger threat to deal with.
“Get in,” the Uchiha’s rough voice interrupted her scattered thoughts.
She looked at what he was referring to and inwardly sighed. It was another jail cell.
The only difference was that this one had much thicker chains and it was pitch black. Orochimaru had left some lights on in the hallway so it was not dark back in his cell, but here, there was absolutely nothing.
Mai stepped in and so did Madara.
Once again, she could barely register what happened because she was suddenly against the wall and Madara tied the chains around her feet and arm.
Then, he took off his glove, bit down on his thumb and spread the blood on her forehead.
She frowned at the odd gesture and watched with worry as he did a few hand seals.
“You will not be able to unblock your chakra without me,” he stated and Mai grit her teeth as she felt her chakra leaving her.
“I will come by each morning to use your blood and you will be fed once a day,” he informed her with the least bit of care.
She was about to demand how he found out about her blood in the first place and explain that one meal would not be enough to replace the amount of blood lost each day, but the one eyed glare he shot her silenced her.
“I will be seeing you tomorrow.”
Madara locked the door behind him with a click and she sighed.
This was a horrible mess to be stuck in the middle of.

To be continued...