The weight of Orochimaru leaning heavily upon him, slowed Kabuto down though they were making relatively good time all the same. The thick gray smog of the city engulfed them and made the yellow lights behind then in the street dim. No one would track them down in time to stop them from reaching the designated point.
Orochimaru's head drooped wearily as he dragged his feet. He was too tired and knew Kabuto too well to hide it. He had regained a body that was fully functional and he no longer had problems moving his arms but he was tired easily and he would wake up late into the night in agony only to remember that it was in fact a memory.
The old pain also came when he was worn out too far. Such as now and it was not making him the slight bit more pleasant then usual.
"How much further?" he growled at Kabuto, who was preening more than usual after a battle. Kabuto was desperately trying to straighten the bent wire of his glasses while supporting Orochimaru and walk down the smoky stinking back alley.
Orochimaru glanced at the once red walls now covered with lichen and grime imbedded onto them when the sound of a cat attacking an unlucky rat. The sound of many rats scattering and scuttling franticly away came behind the crates and rotting garbage. "Quite the scenic route we are taking," He thought grimly. Sickly green water oozed out of the cracks to form a stagnant puddle that covered half the floor. A sudden whiff of something-long dead and rotting (most likely the reason the water wasn't going anywhere) sent his stomach to his throat and gave his head a little extra spin.
"Kabuto!" he nearly yelled before remembering that they were still being followed. One of Kabuto's strengths was stealth and that was not very useful if they were located.
"If she got my message, hopefully she decided to show up," whispered Kabuto unperturbed.
"She? Hopefully?" Orochimaru hissed menacingly. He didn't like the idea of an outsider especially one that he didn't know about or one that was contacted in an unseen fashion.
"An acquaintance that is good at what she does but temperamental," he took a breath, "two more blocks."
"So we could be wasting our time?" Orochimaru wasn't pleased. The very idea of not showing up was beyond the limit of insult he was used to.
After 10 minutes the light was slowly becoming more abundant as they approached the end of an alley. As they drew even closer they realized that the occurrence of more light was from a sleek black sport car's headlights that hummed quietly; waiting for them.
Kabuto walked Orochimaru immediately to the backseat door. He opened it and Orochimaru slid in. Orochimaru glanced around the lush, leather interior as Kabuto closed the door and the lights inside immediately turned off. The passenger door opened and Kabuto got in, the lights briefly silhouetting the women for the briefest moment. The purr of engine shifted under him and they were moving. He briefly sighed with relief he would never show anyone and closed his eyes.
When he opened them they were in a city that he did not recognize. The neon lights reflected off the glass and he watching intently at the people walking past. He glanced to the front of the car and saw that Kabuto was in a fierce conversation with the women. And yet he heard no sound.
"A barrier," He mused. He lifted a hand and tapped the barrier lightly. Kabuto stopped in mid-sentence and turned to him. Kabuto reached over and squeezed the woman's upper arm gently. The barrier dissolved like a little a liquid but left no residue and he could hear them once again.
"Where are we, Kabuto? This is not the way to take to reach our village," Orochimaru questioned, pointedly ignoring the driver.
"There has been fighting in the out laying providences of Binbou that surrounds our village. There is umm…questionable activities that are happening tonight. We should not travel through there. In your current state and the situation, she highly discourages that we follow our previous plan."
"Then where are we?" Orochimaru purred dangerously. He leaned back into his seat casually, waiting.
"Our two previous drop off points have either been inaccessible or…discouraging," They turned down a relatively empty street at that precise moment and had a bullet come smashing through the window shield. The woman swerved the car and without fazing turned the car completely around and jetted back down the street that they had came from. A quiet hum filled the air. And the woman and Kabuto yelled at the exact same moment, "Down!"
She jerked the car nastily to the left and sped down an iddy-biddy little alley that Orochimaru would not have noticed going at that speed. A horrendous boom erupted from behind them and a wave of light literally rolled over them. Orochimaru shivered with the amount of chakra that was released.
"Well Noraneko, I am glad you made friends with the other kiddies!" yelled Kabuto over the rumbles of the building crumbling. An engine roar behind them; attempting to catch up.
"You know me, Kabuto! I always get along so well with the other children!" laughed the female. Something about her voice tugged at his very core. Her voice was familiar as Kabuto's or one of the Sound Five's if not with more importance and couldn't place it because of the blasted tires squealing and crashing of a trashcan in the way becoming airborne. It flew into the car in pursuit but did not shatter the windshield and therefore was bullet proof.
"Dang it!" muttered the woman fiercely. Something about the swearing under her breath hit a pressure point. He was bolt upright in a second and was nearly hit by another bullet that came flying through the window.
They barreled into a well-lit empty street. She changed directions to a straight course and put the sports car to good use. They were a good 20 yard before she yanked the car across the street divider and shot through the window with a massive gun. The bullet ripped through the pursuer's car's steel body like tissue paper. They could feel the heat even as they slipped silently into the cracks of the city, watching the red glow illuminate the night sky.
"So Kabuto, as we were discussing…where are we and where precisely are we going?" Orochimaru asked nonchalantly, brushing glass from the seat and leaning back.
Noraneko didn't get the why she was getting the pleading look from Kabuto. Not for five minutes straight. Then in clicked. "No," she firmly stated.
"Please!"
"Noooo."
"Please!!!!"
"Nooowa!!!!!!"
"You owe me a favor as far as I remember…" Kabuto stated.
She growled and altered her course. "Hitting below the belt and you know it!" she growled menacingly under her breath.
Kabuto smiled smugly.
Orochimaru sighed. It wasn't worth following that little side conversation.
"We are in the city of Suumitsu and we are going to be staying with Noraneko." Kabuto said cheerfully and not bothering to hide his pleasure of getting at her.
Orochimaru was far from impressed if not horrified though he didn't show it. The barrier was up again.
"Not for long you are not! You are staying in the guest section and that is it! I am not talking to you after this and that is final! You can find the clean sheets yourself!" Kabuto grinned and was pleased that Orochimaru wasn't hearing her. She was not the kind of person that Orochimaru would approve of most likely.
They pulled into a nice part of town. It wasn't insanely upper class but it was a good place. You just knew that everyone knew everyone in almost a clan fashion.
They pulled up to the back alley of a pub and Noraneko reached up and pushed a button on the ceiling. There was a jolt and they began to sink below. Orochimaru would have got out of the situation if he had energy to. That and Kabuto hadn't so much as blinked so obviously he had been here. They were surrounded by darkness until Kabtuto opened the door and the side lights showed them to be in a spacious room. There was a door directly ahead of them. Kabuto opened the door for Orochimaru and led him awkwardly to the door in the illumination of the headlights. He opened the door and they tumbled in.
Orochimaru found the light switch quickly and looked around. There were a pair of stairs leading up wards from their narrow corridor.
"Still think that Noranko was acting oddly," thought Kabuto recalling the earlier conversation.
"I won't go in with you. It is against the protocol that we have adopted. Plus I am not all that comfortable about being in the same room as your master. I will be in my rooms. Just go through the garage if you need me for anything.
The cleaning supplies and bandages are under the sink in the bathroom. I will leave food at the door between the apartment and the garage. Be sure that he drinks water and sleeps."
They entered the quaint apartment and Kabuto immediately went to the bathroom to bring back the medical supplies. Orochimaru went to the window and saw that they were on the second floor of what looked like a flower shop next to the pub and the room on top of that lit up as he was looking at it.
Kabuto walked into the room at that moment and began to close all the curtains. Orochimaru followed suit and announced. "I will get a shower." And was gone.
Once they were finished eating and were cleaned up Kabuto made the beds in the two bedrooms and went to bed. Orochimaru however had survived as long as he had because he was paranoid.
He sat down on one of the chairs that sat in front of fireplace and waited for Kabuto to go to bed. Kabuto eventually figured that Orochimaru was in one of his moods. He stood and went into the kitchen to return 2 minutes later with water.
"Noraneko agrees with me that you need to drink water and go to bed," He placed it on the side table and left, not willing to face Orochimaru's wrath if he viewed this as an insult.
Orochimaru sipped the water and dozed in the comfortable chair in front of the fire. He watched the firelight creep up the over the mosaic surrounding it. It struck a chord. He truly looked around the room.
The olive paint in the kitchen was textured and with the light wooden cabinets gave a feel of warmth and led to the room he sat in. Surrounding him was a rocker and a duplicate of the chair he was sitting on with a rich purple silk embroidered pillow. He looked to the floor and noticed an intricate rug over a nearly black wood. Then down the hall that was filled with beautiful oil paintings.
It hit him like a dagger to the chest. This was like her style. Her eye to detail. The memory of the way she used to sing while cleaning or cooking. The feel of overflowing love that would hover like the smoke of the inscents he had burned to rid the emptiness that was there when she left. He let out a gurgling sob before he could repress or strangle it.
It was a good 5 minutes before he had every shiver and deep breathing under control. He was suddenly filled with rage. Who was this woman that cause him pain and remember her? How dare she?! How dare she!?
He stood so violently that the chair toppled and clattered to the floor. He was down the stairs in seconds and in the garage that they had first entered. There was a faint blue glow this time. He paid no attention to anything in there. He could sense Noraneko in a room twenty feet the ahead and up a set of stairs. He walked silently up the stair to stepped into a small apartment that smelled of cooking, mechanics and books. He nearly fell over with the familiarity, but was too angry to notice. He could feel her in the next room. He shoved the beads in the door way to the side and came face to face with her.
She wore a long silky blood red nightgown and a robe tossed hastily on. She stood with a long curved blade in one hand and was digging her nails into her fist with the other. He looked in her face and every pain that she had caused was twisted out of him.
Her eyes showed an unfathomable shock as well as longing and a resolution that was made long ago dissipate. She opened the lips that haunted his dreams as if she was going to say something but it closed and a pain that radiated from her thin frame. She suddenly looked like she was going to cry. She swayed toward him and then stumbled back.
Orochimaru moved forward without thinking but stopped himself 5 feet from her.
"So this is where you have been? Hiding over a pub like a drunkard?" He spat when he could breath again.
"Yes," she whispered. Her lips were twitching between smiles and frowns so quickly it was almost undetectable what she was feeling. "I had to run. I had to go."
"Why?" he hissed. He wanted to strangle her and hold her at the same time. "Were you afraid? Afraid that you could love me? That I could love you? That we were happy?" He began to shake with rage and the urge to kiss her.
The most painful expression he had ever seen crossed her face. It was not like when he would see some one die with a katana in his heart. It was like that of a mother that had watched her children be murdered within her reach.
Her mouth opened to take an uneven breath and then she whispered, "Do you remember how we met?"