Naruto and all its characters are owned by Masashi Kishimoto and any one he has sold the copyrights to. I am making no money on this. Do not sue.

This fiction is rated M for language, adult situations, etc.

Kabuto character study—told from his point of view

Part 1

Freedom and Manipulation

My only freedom is through manipulation.

I have only been able to act within someone else's orders for as long as I can remember. First Sasori's orders and then Orochimaru's. Manipulation is my only means of self expression. With those two holding my collar, manipulations are the only way to save lives.

I am sure I have saved entire villages by letting the snake know how much easier it is for me to recycle a corpse than to go out and find participants for our experiments. No annoying explanation of disappearances. Or the subsequent investigations.

No one needs to know that I accelerated Kimimaro's disease. Although, with how Orochimaru hints at my plotting against him, I do not doubt he thinks I invented the whole thing.

One container of ultimate destruction gone, one to go.

I will have to figure out something to do with the Uchina brat. He is strong. He is arrogant. And he is too damn depressing.

However, his presence distracts the snake from me. I should find some use for the brat. As a thank you perhaps. He is, after all, fun to play with.

Little does the snake know what I have planned. I am surprised he has fooled himself into thinking that I saved him from Tsunade. I thought she was going to heal him.

Still…

The strings should be tightening around the puppet master about now.

I'll never know how many entrances Sasori put into my brain for his own purposes. Or what exactly I've done for him. But putting me on a battlefield as a participant at 6 years old should give me an idea. It doesn't.

( I did find out that that I go into an animalistic killing frenzy if I am pushed passed a certain point. That does come in handy. Worst case scenario, if Orochimaro takes over my body, he'll end up destroying himself. As cool as he seems to be on the outside, I am sure he seethes with anger on the inside.)

So I manipulate the sociopaths. Let them kill each other.

Besides, I like manipulating people. Manipulation allows people to do what I want without me feeling guilty.

I do not like killing. Killing people is a waste. I am a medic. I know what it takes to save a life.

I would much rather have someone else kill for me.

I will manipulate people out of fighting me. Or try to at least. I failed with both Sakura-chan and Naruto-kun. I am sure I left some psychological damage along the way. Naruto-kun is entertaining at least. I don't want to hurt either of them. I am sure Naruto-kun will come in handy latter.

After all,

at some point I will manipulate myself to freedom.