A/N: Yas three chapters huehue : D


The tedious body scan left Kimimaro rather hungry. He left the medical room and a grinning Kabuto, walking along hallway to the kitchen a few rooms down. Strangely there were clouds of dark smoke pouring through the door. The stench of burning was extremely conspicuous. What horrible thing were the slav-erm, cooks, whipping up now?

To his surprise there were no cooks in the kitchen. Instead he found the horrible sight of a grumpy Tayuya mixing a sticky black liquid. The words she was muttering were certainly not fit for his master's household. The redhead darted her eyes upwards when he entered. Another foul word was mumbled.

"What on earth do you have in that pot?" Kimimaro asked. He narrowed his eyes at the awful liquid.

In a rage, Tayuya flung the ladle into the sink. Its handle bent near to the point of snapping. She was close to flinging the pot as well but the Sound Five Leader would probably chide her for that.

"Lord Orochimaru is punishing me," she growled.

"Do not take on that tone when speaking of him."

"Tch. Anyway, I've been given this hellish job to help cook 'food'. Look at this junk." Tayuya flicked the pot, creating a metallic ringing sound.

"Then you best start over and do a better job next time. Lord Orochimaru will not eat such mess. And I doubt you would want Kidōmaru to laugh at you."

Kimimaro removed an apple from the cabinet, and using his elbow blades he began nonchalantly peeling off the skin. Tayuya gaped openly at him, her mouth hanging open like a frog's. Why the heck is he using his elbows… It was a rather awkward situation for her: watching her leader peel oranges with his elbows. Kimimaro's elbows were now tinged slightly orange.

Though watching the elbow peeling did give Tayuya an idea. "Would you help me cook?"

Kimimaro paused in between bites. "I will not help you cook, Tayuya. This is a punishment that Lord Orochimaru wishes for you to serve out alone, to learn a lesson."

His subordinate made another attempt to plead with him. "Please help me...Lord Kimimaro. If I don't get this done by dinner Orochimaru will kill me!"

"And," she added, "being our leader, you will be held partially accountable."

He threw the peel into a basket. Unfortunately her statement was accurate. Orochimaru held him responsible for the actions of the Sound Five. He had thought it was a small price to pay so he could better serve his lord, but it was veryyyyy annoying now. How dishonourable for Tayuya to threaten him like that.

"Do not address me as lord. Only Orochimaru may be titled as such."

"So will you help me?"

"...very well."

Happily, Tayuya passed him two sharp knives. He felt their edges and they definitely were not as sharp as his bones. It appeared that he would have to help her cut up beef to cook into gyudon.

The Leader of the Sound Five. Cutting up beef into cubes. To make gyudon.

Kimimaro flicked his arms back, of course making his blades extend again, then began cutting the beef up into cubes. For some reason there was a strange sensation on his elbows - it felt like that time when he had impaled that Leaf ninja on his bone.

"TAYUYA!" It turned out that she was using his bones to cut up vegetables while he himself was cutting beef. Currently there were two heads of cabbage impaled upon his bones. So now he was a cutting station! No amount of humiliation could ever equal to this. Kimimaro flung the vegetables off his bones, and the bones ended up piercing into Tayuya's black hat. Her hat came off to reveal an embarrassingly large bald spot where her hair should have been.

The kunoichi turned red, whether from shame or from anger, he could not tell.

The cabbage leaves crunched under his feet as he left the kitchen.

Next chap preview:

"I am used to eating alone."