Two weeks. It had been two weeks. Or, to be exact, 12 days, eight hours, 40 minutes. Kabuto would have counted the seconds, but he knew that even obsession had its limits.

So, for all intents and purposes, it had been two weeks since Orochimaru had decided to "thank" him. And by learning of his subordinate's desire to be used, he had in essence done just that. Not as expected, but when one wanted to be used, one usually didn't have a say in how he was to be used.

But despite his better judgment, Kabuto secretly harbored the belief that his true reward was yet to come. He'd revealed his favorite fantasy, after all. It was that situation that he still wanted. Fantasies had a way of being picky like that.

But it had been two weeks now, and Orochimaru hadn't once even looked at him with any more regard than he noticed the ground beneath his feet. Not a single kind word, or a smoldering look, or a lingering touch. Nothing. It was like Kabuto had vanished from his sight.

No, Kabuto knew that wasn't quite true. It was more like he'd faded from a transient pedestal to the shadows of his daily role as right-hand man. No matter how he wanted more, he was and would always be a servant. He didn't earn his master's affection just because he wanted it. He had a purpose, one purpose, Orochimaru's purpose, and his existence was based around his ability to carry it out.

He wasn't special in Orochimaru's eyes. He was just necessary. As necessary as the ground was to walk on. And because the ground is so widely used, it becomes average, commonplace. The only time one really appreciates the ground is when one's footing has been taken from under them. At all other times, the ground is there to be ignored.

Kabuto was dirt to Orochimaru. If Orochimaru wanted to get dirty, then Kabuto was there for him. But Orochimaru didn't want to play in the dirt; he wanted solid ground to support him. It wasn't the dirt's place to reach up and pull its master down.

That's why Kabuto never brought it up. He had his duties, his place. There were the day-to-day aspects of serving his master that were just as fulfilling. Well, as fulfilling as he could trick himself to believe. Every day he was being used for Orochimaru's satisfaction—but even if those were his own words, he still wanted more.