Silence
By Misc666
Zaku Abumi let out a voiceless scream as he was brought back into the world of the conscious. As hard as he tried his scream seemed to stay just inside his mind and failed to emerge. Sweat dripped down his forehead as he willed his arms to move, willed them to prop him up so he could look at his surroundings.
But Zaku found his arms refusing to obey him. As hard as he tried he couldn't move them at all, let alone do what he wanted to do. And that's when a memory came to him, utterly unbidden.
Zaku turned around to where the army of what the boy had called 'destruction bugs' seemed to be feasting on him with their eyes. They swarmed and heaved as the boy with the sunglasses merely looked on apathetically as if he was bored, although without seeing his eyes Zaku couldn't be sure.
The boy merely proclaimed that the battle was over. With only one arm Zaku could only attack one of them, the bugs or him. And as a shinobi of the Hidden Sound, Zaku knew he wasn't bluffing. In saying those words Zaku hadn't heard his heart's tempo speed up or his breathing deepen. This was someone who was totally confident in his abilities.
But as all ninja's should know that you must always keep a trump card. At the start of the battle he'd revealed one, that his right arm wasn't as injured as it seemed. But now he was going to reveal his second one, a trump that totally destroyed the boy's strategy.
With a heave he ripped his left arm out of the sling. Grinning he noticed a slight adjustment in the breathing of his biggest rival, Dosu Kinuta, in the stands as he did it. And yet even this had no effect on the boy who remained calm. Despite this he took some measure of satisfaction from the shock from all the ninjas.
This boy hadn't seen his fight during the second exam and was totally clueless about what he could do with two arms. One arm alone was a force to be reckoned with, but two was magnificent. His arms were his pride and joy since Orochimaru-sama had altered them for him. And nobody, not even the last of the Uchiha clan of Sharingan users with the curse seal of Orochimaru-sama, was strong enough to harm him with them. They'd survived Uchiha trying to break them.
And now they were going to claim another kill for him. Bug-boy was going down.
Air built up inside him as he spun pointing his arms at the two threats. The bug-boy had been strong but not strong enough, nor smart enough. When he felt enough was built up his let loose.
And his arms exploded in a shower of blood. Bugs then began to pour out of his arms. That's when it hit him hard, his arms were no more. He had become totally useless.
And that's how he came to this situation. They'd feared that Orochimaru-sama has meant them to be useless by changing his mind about them killing Uchiha Sasuke. And now he was totally useless. A ninja without arms, a ninja without purpose, useless as if he was a mere student.
Orochimaru-sama had deserted him for good.
But what of the others?
"Hello Abumi, I'm surprised to see you up." A youthful looking nurse pushed her way into the room, obviously he was still in the Hidden Leaf village as indicated by the cheerful way she'd spoken to him. In his village nobody spoke like that.
"What have I missed?" He tried to sit up again only for her to walk over and push him up to lean on the back of the bed. Then in a very womanly manner she fluffed the pillows and put them behind his back for comfort. He began to feel uncomfortable with the treatment he was getting in a village they planned on destroying.
"Well, I assume you want to know about the Chuunin Exam. The Third Test is set to take place tomorrow. Nine ninjas made it through this year." Zaku became curious as to which nine made it through. He knew that Uchiha and Bug-boy had definitely made it through. But what about the other competitors? Dosu was definitely in the nine she mentioned, or at least he felt that Dosu would have made it through. But who would make up the remaining six?
The taijutsu user that the three of them had fought seemed rather powerful one on one and his team-mates had look rather strong despite not fighting. The girl who'd tried fighting him, however, was useless and undoubtedly hadn't made it through. Thinking about it more made him decide that maybe Kin even stood a chance of making it through.
"The boss even said he'd let me accompany Lee to it and keep an eye on him. This means I can see the most talented of this village's Genin in action." Zaku got the idea that several of the Leaf's ninjas made it through, which was understandable with only six of the fighters in the preliminaries not being from the Leaf.
"I want to see my arms." The nurse looked over in surprise as he declared this. But Zaku knew he'd have to see it some time. He had to see what he had left. Whether there was any chance of saving his arms. Slowly with a sad nod she peeled the covers off his chest. The first thing he noticed was the lack of forearms. So they were lost as he expected.
"Well, I'll be back to see you in an hour. I believe one of your team-mates is here to see you." On cue there came a gentle knock at the door. Kin Tsuchi didn't wait for an invitation as she pushed the door open and walked over to sit on the edge of the bed. The nurse slid out of the room.
"Well, we both failed. Dosu made it through to the last nine though. The boy who used shadows defeated me." Zaku grunted as if he knew all that already. Of course the boy had managed to capture Dosu with his shadows, but Kin must have known he used them. Even if she hadn't seen it Dosu would have told her.
"Where is Dosu?" She looked down at the question. Out of the three of them she seemed to care more about the rest of her team.
"He went to attack the sand-guy. He's a monster, he defeated the taijutsu user that we fought. But Dosu hasn't come back after three days. I think he's dead." And that was it. With Dosu dead and the others not in the Third Test it made them totally useless. Orochimaru-sama wouldn't ever come for them. Meaning either the dungeons of the Leaf where they'd be tortured if they knew Orochimaru was their teacher. Or just being kicked out of the village and left to fend for themselves, a boy with no arms and a useless girl.
"So what are we going to do? Orochimaru has no need for us." Zaku looked down as Kin followed his example. Zaku recognised the significance of his leaving off the honorific, this meant he accepted that Orochimaru would desert them. Suddenly the door was pushed open as Orochimaru entered, in the disguise of the sensei of them. Quietly he looked over at them before looking round the room. Satisfied that there wasn't anything to spy on them he got closer.
"Well I take it you ashamed of your failures." Both Zaku and Kin nodded fervently at this.
"The boy I fought was a demon. No normal ninja has bugs living inside him. He was not a conventional opponent." Zaku immediately felt stupid after saying this. He'd learnt not to speak when Orochimaru didn't want you to.
"The Aburame clan are far from strong. You should have had no problem fighting them. After all, no conventional ninja has air canals in his arms. Of course you're now as conventional as the others." Zaku wondered whether he was supposed to laugh and decided it probably wasn't his best course of action.
"But no matter. I have one last job for the three of you." Orochimaru smirked as they leaned in closely. Neither thought to tell him that Dosu was no longer around.
And as Orochimaru laughed Zaku was sure he felt all around him. He felt the silence.